> https://gdpr.eu/cookies/

> To comply with the regulations governing cookies under the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive you must: Receive users’ consent before you use any cookies except strictly necessary cookies.

It's a compliance thing. It's worse if you're in the EU, but the internet is global so it affects everybody, these days.

The old uBlockOrigin (which Google depreciated) had an auto-decline, so I didn't see one of those cookie banners for years... the new Lite version, however, doesn't seem to have that feature.

There should definitely be a standard API for this stuff by now allowing browsers to control the cookie experience. Maybe we're moving in that direction, I'm not sure. I think there was a feeling the law would be rolled back so there was no major push to standardise things

This is done in an effort to comply with what is commonly called "cookie law" (GDPR + ePrivacy directive).

Those texts don't say anything about cookie banners, though, only that users should be informed and have the possibility to make a choice. How that information and ability to make a choice are presented to the user is left to the site owner to decide.

For site owners, cookie banners are an easy way to comply without having to DESIGN that compliance into their site, which can be interesting but time consuming and expensive.

In theory, it should be possible to prompt the user for consent before storing something on their device but that would only work for stuff site owners have control over.

In practice, "cookies" are rarely used voluntarily by the site owners themselves but they are used a lot by the crap they add to their sites for tracking and so on via tag managers. And for that there is no better solution than a blanket cookie banner.