thank you for cutting through all the noise!
i had done some testing by specifying the source path (to minimize the test time), and that did not create the destination folder (when i assumed it would).
so i was under the mistaken impression that copy did not create folders.
it is in the process of rclone copy remote:album and i see it creating all the folders in the destination.
and a subsequent copy will just copy new, but not delete, of course.
i don't have a 'test' google photo account so wanted to be careful testing with 50GB of files - and the --dry-run didn't specify whether it was creating folders or not.
thanks again for your patience!