So “smart rules” only means “more rules”?

Smart rule making includes reducing the regulatory burden when it overreaches. The weight of regulation around tech in the EU is creating an environment such that the only companies that can operate in a space are the ones who can afford massive compliance overhead. That leaves you with the very same big tech firms that people are writing these rules to protect themselves from in the first place.

Well, yeah, they were written to prevent at least some of the privacy abuse from those big tech companies, not to get rid of them. Sometimes the answer is more rules, such as rules protecting smaller businesses while continuing to place regulatory burdens on the tech giants, who are responsible for the most egregious invasions of privacy.