The thing is, tracking cookies don't annoy me, because I block all cookies anyway (unless it's one of the few sites I need to actually log into), so they can't track me with them.
It's the popups that actually annoy me, especially because they keep on popping up -- ironically they need to store a cookie to remember that the user has accepted/denied, and my cookie-blocking blocks that cookie as well.
I think browsers blocking cookies by default and asking for permission before storing cookies is a better solution to this issue than a GDPR popups all over the web, and leaves far less room for malicious websites to track you in spite of the user denying.
But the EU law is not just about cookies. It's also about e.g. fingerprinting your browser which is very hard to effectively block in practice.
It's a common misconception that it's about cookies. It's about data processing, i.e. tracking. There is a different law then GDPR which is about storing data on user PC's but that is also not about cookies but about any browser storage and more or less got superseded(1) by GDPR.
(1): Ok, that is quite a oversimplification, but most popups are now about GDPR and having them also covers the other law.
It's the popups that actually annoy me, especially because they keep on popping up -- ironically they need to store a cookie to remember that the user has accepted/denied, and my cookie-blocking blocks that cookie as well.
I think browsers blocking cookies by default and asking for permission before storing cookies is a better solution to this issue than a GDPR popups all over the web, and leaves far less room for malicious websites to track you in spite of the user denying.