That’s exactly what I meant, copy everything from your local project, except:
node_modules (since it weights a lot) - you should install packages directly on the production server with (npm install or yarn install).
.cache and build folders - you should build the UI in production with the production env (NODE_ENV=production npm run build or NODE_ENV=production yarn build)
That’s exactly how node.js apps work, it can’t work without node_modules, package.json and etc.
If you are new to strapi/node apps, and you don’t know why there are node_modules and package.json, then I would first recommend finishing a basic crash course for node.js apps, as it will be much easier for you to understand how strapi works.