The EU's own government websites have these same cookie banners. Are they maliciously compliant with their own regulations?

EU made bad laws that have encouraged this kind of behavior. And now we're all suffering.

Look at the CCPA in California for legislation that accomplishes largely the same goals, but doesn't break the web due to "malicious compliance".

> The EU's own government websites have these same cookie banners.

Most of them decidedly don't have the same cookie banners. E.g. in vast majority of cases they don't prevent you from seeing content, and have an easy opt-out mechanism without dark patterns.

Yes, the EU also wants to track you.

The result matters, which is why regulations should be considered carefully. The whole cookie fiasco is exactly that: they created a whole industry of shitty compliance and the rules are complex enough that every engineering team is like "just use the off-the-shelf shitty thing". And here we are.

No. The cookie banners have ruined the internet. The banners haven’t fixed anything. Business as usual, just click here.