Google camera requires Google photos, is there any workaround?

I hate Google photos because I feel it's too invasive with that cloud backup that you never really know if a photo is online or on device, so I disabled it in my Google Pixel.

Now Google camera is broken, says it can't show previews until I enable Google photos again.

Is there any workaround? Tried with many other galleries, but seems it's hard coded to Google photos...