- "useful"

Virtually no petitions ever reach the thresholds. The effect of this system is to blunt the formation of actually-effective organized political groups, by burning their time and energy and feel like they're "participating" in EU lawmaking—and subsequently gaslight them into thinking they lack popular support, and should probably give up. When in fact many of the petitions are broadly popular among anyone who's polled; it's just that at its core it's an anti-democratic system set up to perpetuate laws in the opposite direction of what >50% of people actually want.

Few people are truly passionate about–in this example–video game consumer protection laws, but I'd wager an overwhelming majority of anyone who's asked would side with consumer protection over consumer abuse.