The GDPR obliges all companies to provide an option for users to receive all data held on them; takeout and FB'd equivalent were implemented in response to that.
For all other companies, at least if you are in the EU, you should he able to request the data by eg email and they are obliged to send it. You just don't know what format you'll get.
Another view might be that this means you are investing in the community behind it and some of the leading people who hopefully will help to ensure that the project lives on.
Yes I absolutely agree it can be useful.anf satisfying to see analytics. But it also means you send your users' data to another place where you know it will be recycled etc.
There are alternatives but as you say sadly none are as easy - probably because none have as much budget behind them. I see a number of comparison articles for gdpr compliant analytics, so it seems to have become its own market of sorts.
I have opted myself out of most Google services due to the intrusive nature, I wouldn't want to impose it on my site visitors (but I also have no need to monetize, so maybe a different ballpark).
The law is not about cookies, it's about an obligation to inform on and let users opt out of tracking features that go beyond technically necessary features.
They are not mandatory, it's a choice by the site owner to include them. They are only mandatory if you include tracking features that track users across the web (= ads and Google analytics).
Gdpr does not force the banners. It forces to ask for consent before tracking users across sites. This doesn't have to be a banner and it doesn't have to be if you only use technical cookies (login, session,
..)
You only need consent if you include Google analytics or ads or a similar platform. Those platforms push the banners on people, pretending that those are needed.
The reason you see the banners everywhere is that a huge number of sites integrate these spy services.
Not because of the law but because those pushing tracking and designing the banners intentionally make them intrusjve. Purely technical cookies (eg login, spam protection) don't need a consent by the user.
No website needs GA. You choose to have it for whatever reason but there's not ever a need to use GA. There are many less intrusive ways to father statistics than to sell your users to Google.
How many sites have seriously thought about reducing Google analytics and intrusive ads? If it's even 1% then the banners unequivocally HAVE made the web better.
Commission (leaders of which are selected by your government that you presumably voted for) makes a draft.
Commission consults widely (usually online consultation) and all national ministries comment.
Commission redrafts and sends to parliament and council.
In the council your government has (most of the time) veto power.
In the parliament your and other countries delegates vote on it.
Then parliament (people's representatives) and council (national government representatives) sit together, find the middle ground of a final draft.
Parliament and council then each do a final vote.
Depending on the exact type of legal document it either enters into force right away or your national administration, parliament and government create their own national version of it conform to the EU document and make that a national law.
That's a pretty heavy process but it's just wrong to say that the voters don't have influence. National governments and delegates both can say no.
Now is the parliament representative just because people are not from just one country? Is your national parliament representative even if there are people from different regions/cities/...? Is your major democratically elected just because that other suburb also got to vote? That's just an absurd position.
For all other companies, at least if you are in the EU, you should he able to request the data by eg email and they are obliged to send it. You just don't know what format you'll get.