The banner is not the problem, the predatory tracking by webpages are. You can make a webpage without it no problem, my home page does not have it.

To add onto it the do-not-track header can be used to signal an opt out. There needs to be a browser wide setting that is communicated to websites without user interaction. Some German court even ruled that Linkdin IIRC has to respect DNT for that.

The banners themselves are ugly and can fill almost half the screen

Even website makers who don't use predatory tracking end up including them as a CYA tactic

Yes, but is your webpage profitable?

The law is good, but websites implement it badly on purpose to inflict consumer ire towards the EU. There's good money to be made if they manage to make the voting public hate the cookie banners so much the anti-tracking legislation gets repelled