Why can't I delete iCloud account but keep my photos

I have a Macbook Air, and two iPads. All are running Mavericks or above. When I set up this OS, I was asked a bunch of questions about the iCloud. I do my own backups. I don't really need the iCloud, but naively I thought what is the harm.
I managed to turn off most of what I didn't want for the Macbook Air, so I think I'm good there.
But it's the iPads I am worried about. I get asked to enter my iCloud password at random intervals. It's intrusive and annoying. I don't need an iCloud, so I thought I'd turn the feature off.
But to turn it off it says it's going to delete my photos FROM MY DEVICE. Not from the iCloud, but from the Device!
My question is why does Apple think it is OK to remove MY files from MY device that I own and save them to an area that I will no longer have access to?
I don't think that Apple is stealing my photos for nefarious purposes. I don't think Apple cares about my photos. So I don't understand why they would take them away from me.
I tried to login to the iCloud and see what photos they have. And you know what? I can't. If I try it in Safari on the iPad, I get Set up iCloud ( already done), install find my iPhone, and Find my Friends. If I login from my Macbook, I have no photos showing, which I think it because I never enabled photo backups on that device. I can't see the ones from my iPad, which are on the SAME ACCOUNT. Now I'm puzzled by the point of this iCloud feature. I would have thought it was a way to access my stuff from anywhere. I guess not? Then what IS the point?
Like I said I have a backup of the stuff on the iPad, so that's not the problem. The problem is why is Apple making me jump through hoops to restore my own files that I did not delete? It's the exact opposite of what I want to happen. I want to delete photos from the cloud and not from the device.

Hey there mlz89,
It sounds like you want to remove an account you have set up to use Messages. You should be able to do this with the Internet Accounts section of the computers system preferences, or modify an accounts settings here:
List of account features or list of account types (on the right)
If an account is highlighted on the left, its features and settings are listed on the right. Select the features you want to use and change settings as you like.
If no account is highlighted on the left, you can add one by clicking a provider such as iCloud on the right.
Delete
To remove the highlighted account and turn off all its features, click Delete (–).
If you remove an account while your Mac is set up for iCloud Keychain, the account is also removed from your other Mac computers set up for iCloud Keychain.
OS X Mavericks: Internet Accounts preferences
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14286
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
All the very best,
Sterling

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