If the link is buried, that is a violation of the GDPR. Contact details for the controller and the Data Protection Officer must be given at the point where data is collected: https://gdpr-info.eu/art-13-gdpr/. There's also something else about an affirmative duty to facilitate exercise of rights, but that's less clear-cut.
A non-functional link is also a GDPR violation.
That said, I agree in general: it's a burden on me to make these websites respect my rights, and that's kinda bullshit. I either have to go through the hoops the site sets up, or I have to go through the bureaucratic hoops of the organization that judges the hoopiness of the website's hoops. But if I do care enough, there is now a stick to wield, which is an improvement.
Re:Dark Patterns, the Ratchet
by Silhouette on Tuesday March 27, 2018 @09:38PM
(#16694460)
Not all organisations are required to have a DPO under the GDPR.
Re:Dark Patterns, the Ratchet
by icebraining on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @09:39AM
(#16697522)
As anvandare pointed out in another comment,
"It shall be as easy to withdraw as to give consent."
Like the article says, there might be a way, somewhere deeply hidden in the website to revoke the consent, but do you really want to spend half an hour for that (if the button really, exists, and if it actually does anything)