That may well be "magical thinking"; but nobody said that costs imposed on businesses don't deplete consumers' wallets, eventually.

There's a libertarian, anti-regulation line of thought to which some USAians seem to be particularly prone.

Europe, and especially the EU, runs on regulations. Without all kinds of regulations, the EU would fall apart. Most people here understand that. They also understand that imposing costs on businesses results in marginally more expensive products (although GDPR compliance isn't expensive, especially if your gesture towards the GDPR is just a cookie wall).

Europeans would rather have the GDPR than be able to read American news sites. American news sites would rather block European readers than comply with the GDPR.

Everything is working as intended, no?

No.

The GDPR requires sites not to discriminate. It is a violation to refuse to serve users because they are in Europe.

Laws in Europe apply to European subjects only, not the entire world. Europe has no authority to force a non-European company to serve it's subjects.

It certainly has authority to block it from doing business in the EU if they don't comply, and to back that block with legal action against employees or assets inside the region if the company keeps breaking the law.

King Canute required the waves to stop. How did that work out for him?

To be fair on old Knut, his piece of seaside theatre was meant as a put-down for his flattering courtiers, who had told him he was so great he could stop the tide. He wanted to prove the opposite.