If I import into LR cloud and then sync into LRC do I end up with a lesser quality picture from an editing or printing prospective
No, what happens is that because Lightroom Classic always wants to store originals locally, if Lightroom Classic sees new originals in the cloud that it doesn’t have yet, it downloads those originals to the local folder on your computer that’s set in syncing Preferences. So you get all the original files.
Does this mean that all mu copies are Virtual copies instead of an original?
No. Because Lightroom Classic wants to download originals, you have full original data to edit or print from Lightroom Classic.
What you might be thinking of is going the other way: Lightroom Classic syncs only Smart Previews (not virtual copies) of its local originals. So, if you’ve been syncing originals taken on your phone/tablet down to Lightroom Classic and then removing them from the cloud to save cloud space, and then you sync an original back up to the cloud so you can once again edit it on your phone or tablet, what Lightroom Classic syncs up is not the original but a Smart Preview of it.
That means, for an image you sync image up to the cloud from Lightroom Classic, the full resolution is not available on phone or tablet, but remains available in Lightroom Classic itself which is storing the original locally.
If this is not easy to follow, its not your fault…it’s just not simple to think through. But when in doubt, it can all be derived from the two core principles:
For Lightroom Classic, permanent storage of originals is always local, and Lightroom Classic syncs only limited resolution Smart Previews up to the cloud.
For Lightroom cloud desktop and all Lightroom mobile apps, permanent storage of originals is in the cloud, and if they are set to download an original from the cloud, the device gets a cached copy of the cloud original. As a cached copy, it can be purged if storage needs to be freed on the device, which is OK because if you need to work with it again, Lightroom can download another copy of the cloud original.