"Reject" being now an options is an improvement of sorts but honestly, the cookie laws in the current form are terrible long-term for privacy. Like recycling plastic, it's a red herring that benefits the big companies, and where everyone else loses.
The burden being on the user to manage everything reminds me more of the dysfunctional US healthcare pricing system, where the uninsured have no negotiating power and are hit with absurd prices.
The issue isn't isn't the law. The issue is every single website tracking you in a privacy invading way. The annoying cookie banners are a side effect of these companies rightfully having to now inform us of when they're invading our privacy.
I think that's the wrong framing. Any one small site tracking me doesn't do anything. It's the shadow profiles that are built by correlating this data accross the web that actually is the issue.
The fact that an information market exists is a legal issue at heart to me.
The burden being on the user to manage everything reminds me more of the dysfunctional US healthcare pricing system, where the uninsured have no negotiating power and are hit with absurd prices.