How can I find my iCloud photos on a PC?

I saw another thread that emphasized this fact, and also confirmed online. My only question is WHY? If you have pics on your phone that you want to use on your PC and or post to a website, you have to search for them on your iphone, and then email them to yourself? This is very un-Apple-like as far as user friendliness, and well, it is functionality that one would simply expect to have on icloud.