> while users may still "consent" to being tracked
That's the problem, in my opinion. Users should not be able to consent to third party tracking because if they can, companies will use any dark pattern at their disposal to make them consent. Third party tracking in general should be banned.
Noyb, the NGO founded by Max Schrems, the guy who successfully sued Facebook, is preparing to build large cases against different users of cookie banners to get rid of all the dark patterns:
https://twitter.com/NOYBeu/status/1399230262953787395
That's good progress.
However I agree to you that this isn't enough. Even without dark patterns too many people will click "yes" without understanding and this will live on in some way or another, till we make laws stricter.
That's the problem, in my opinion. Users should not be able to consent to third party tracking because if they can, companies will use any dark pattern at their disposal to make them consent. Third party tracking in general should be banned.