Yes, you can. And so can I, because we backup to iCloud. She didn’t.
The first thing I noticed that seemed strange: I dropped my iPhone 6. I have to wonder if that isn’t a typo. The iPhone 7 came out toward the end of 2016.
I found this significant: figure out how to restore access to my two-factor authentication app so that I could use my email. In other words, the problem only happened because of using a two-factor authentication app. I do most of my email through the web site using a browser on my computer, so even if I was missing having email at my fingertips everywhere I could still use it.
Then we get to the heart of it. I didn’t back up my misplaced iPhone. Now the iPhone 6 seems less unusual.
I also, not often and on no particular schedule, connect my iPhone to my PC with a cable and use File Explorer to copy all the new photos to my PC. (I have a vague memory of running some sort of general backup with that connection, but too long ago to have details.)