I think you never tied to read the GDPR [1]. It's awfully vague and the reason businesses went on with the bad UX is because it required interpretation, and the little meaning there was in the beginning was completely lost in translation.
So yes, it's all the fault of the EU.
I read it in full years ago and found it quite clear. Which parts did you find to be vague?
Look if everyone agrees the outcome of the law has been incredibly annoying, then that is ultimately down to the law and/or its enforcement. The point of the law is to provide incentives to self-interested actors for good behaviour. I see a lot of complacency in these threads, combined with a lot of frankly absurd posturing, like if anybody is against the GDPR, they must’ve been brainwashed by Elon Musk. No! People dislike it because they dislike its practical effects, and frankly the EU should take responsibility for that and try to fix it.
> People dislike it because they dislike its practical effects, and frankly the EU should take responsibility for that and try to fix it.
What’s to fix?
A business needs a legitimate reason to process personal data, people need to be sufficiently informed about how their data will be processed. These are not impossible obstacles. Anyone who claims otherwise is acting in bad faith because they know that people would not agree to what the business wants to do with their data.