On the contrary, it reads to me like they've simply been around, and this is the general impression they gathered. Which may still not even be true, but it makes a whole lot more sense context wise, and is pretty darn different to the conveniently malicious motivation you're proposing. And with this, now your own "royal we" is similarly rendered deceptive.

> At the very least to the extent that the whole setup limits national sovereignty.

That's how anything grouplike works indeed.

> I struggle to believe there isn’t a significant fraction of EU citizens who are frustrated with the EU’s laws.

Sounds like something that'd have polling data coverage?