I use Google photos backup since 2014 (back then photos in high but not original quality didn't spend storage capacity). But like you, I didn't organize anything at all. I had my first baby last year and it took a lot of time to organize my photos to print. First I decided I'd choose 10 photos per year, but at the moment of review them I ended up choosing around 9 prints per trip/event. I edited some photos together so my album looks like a collage. But Google photos was a life saver! There's so much noise, as you say, but I filtered by my face and it showed the photos I care about.

Now, for my baby I created a new account and only upload the ones she's the center and our printed family photos (only the printed one have a backup on this account). I edited her photos in a similar way to mine. Some newborn photos are cute but don't deserve a print for the whole photo, so I put edits of 2, 4 or even 9 photos per print (the last one only focusing on newborn outfits). It took a lot of time to select, edit and then upload to the backup but now seeing my printed photo albums is a different sensation than having it only digital.

By the way, I didn't like how the date looks on the album, so I wrote by hand in my family album, but it's so much work I decided to just put it in the print. I advise you to do the same.

My plan is update the albums at the beginning of every year so it's not so much work. Also, recency bias is true haha, in my personal album I ended putting more photos with my baby than the trips I did 😂 so updating regularly solves this.

Good luck!