Of all the things to yield on, the GDPR really isn't it. The cookie banner problem is one caused by site owners consistently preferring using dark patterns over just not doing the stuff that makes you need a banner. If anything, the EU should have put the hammer down and enforced its regulations on those cookie banners consistently having 'accept all' being the default option and the alternative be more difficult to access.

The central browser controls they mention will hopefully be a more sucessful version of the 'do-not-track' header. An equivalent of that will be fine (although an opt-in version would be better), but it still needs to have legal enforcement behind it to work, which the old one didn't, and the cookie banners aren't feeling.

What's the point of the choice in the first place. People either don't want cookies or they don't care. Nobody wants them. If both options are accessible enough, people always press decline. The EU should just make non essential use illegale.

They should do it on OS level instead of browser level, apps also do tracking, and collecting data. One question when you first boot up your device. One switch in settings.