The only reason you get the pop ups about cookies is because the sites you visit that display those popups prefer to do that instead of respecting your privacy.
The cookie popups are just the dark pattern that companies decided to use to avoid using those sweet, sweet money from selling your private data. They were never prescribed by GDPR.
That was not mandated by the GDPR but implemented by companies trying to punish users in the hope of a backlash and cancellation of the law
All the GDPR is asking is: "if you want to use some PII, you have (1) to ask consent (2) to accept user decision"
Others implementations may have included: respecting "Do Not Track" signal implemented in browser or just... not using PII at first to sell personal datas to advertiser to make more money than selling untargeted ads (so no popup needed)!
It’s literally malicious compliance.