Did Netscape 3.0 have per-site options to enable cookies and specifically allow/block third party cookies?
If so, that’s impressive.
The more relevant aspect, I think, is that there's an essential/non-essential distinction in the law, which differs from 1st-party/3rd-party.
> Cookie Pal includes the following features:
> Automatically and transparently accepts or rejects cookies from all or specified servers without user interaction.
> Cookies received from unspecified servers can be automatically accepted or rejected without user interaction, or the user can be asked for confirmation.
> "On the fly" adding of servers to the accept from and reject from lists, allows you to manually accept or reject a cookie the first time it is received and then have it automatically accepted or rejected every time it is received thereafter.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/19971012223847/http://www.kburra...
[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20010331050614/http://www.kburra...
Besides, GDPR isn't about cookies, it's about what companies are allowed to do with your personal information. Functional cookies don't require consent, abuse of your personal data does.
You'd want that to be the case, but in practice they do. Just look up how vague the definition of functional cookies is.
No one wants to risk insane fines.
Users have always been in control of whether they accept cookies. There have been settings in your browser since (at least) Netscape 3.0. It's only because of dumb EU laws that cookie control has been pushed up into "user space" with these idiotic banners that no one reads.