The GDPR required an action by those performing intrusive tracking. Popups was one possible action.

Less intrusive tracking is an option! Opt-in tracking is an option! Not tracking is an option! I don't track anything on my personal sites, and I push back on anything at work that'd make me add a banner as hard as I possibly can.

Yeah they could have just not tracked by default. They could have just respected DNT. I mean it’s right there already built into the browser.

(And browsers could have set DNT by default).

But of course no website is going to do that.

I actually like the pop ups because they often show all the trackers used in a list of “our partners”. Many big websites have hundreds of these tracking companies listed as partners. It’s shocking. And a useful reminder of why web privacy matters and that if you don’t fight for it they will take everything they can just to squeeze out every last fraction of a penny from you and your data/privacy.