messages taking up too much space

hey this is an honest question to hopefully quell my anxiety (so please be kind 😅). i just recently checked my icloud storage and messages was taking up 4.9 of the free 5gb, did some deleting of old messages (nothing over a year is saved) and got rid of around half of the messages i had as well as top conversations. it only took it down to 4.7. i subscribed to icloud+ for now so i wouldn’t run out of space since i also use icloud mail very frequently and didn’t want to lose access to that. but to my point, i was wondering since i have only one device (my iphone 14 pro, hopefully upgrading soon) if turning off icloud messages and deleting from icloud would help my situation? i would probably turn it back on after the 30 days if it does help, but i was hoping to get some helpful insight into how to clear out that space if i can.

and for a bit of context i do some independent work and travel a bit, so i need my phone for that and being able to contact family and for emergencies. so i was also wondering if there were any risks to turning off icloud messages. thanks to anyone that answers.