I love the banners! Sites don't need them for basic functionality, so when you see one you know that you're at a site out to sell your data and violate your privacy.
I feel like I can immediately tell how shady a site is by how annoying and passive aggressive their cookie banners are.
You can't, really. Analytics, and the type of compliance that comes with it, may be the responsibility of site operators, but it is usually never in the operators' wheelhouse. So instead of tailoring a solution for their specific sites, operators outsource this to an industry leader. The banners tell you little about the site operators, and a lot about the adjacent industry.
What do you generally do when you get faced by a popup and the site has the content you need? If you just click yes, then it would have been better if EU just regulated privacy policy to be more readable. It would be easier for sites and better for users who don't care about privacy, and in some ways better for users like you who care about privacy.
I am bitterly disappointed by Atlas Obscura in that respect. I really liked them before their GDPR malicious compliance dark pattern revealed themselves to be sketchy.
I feel like I can immediately tell how shady a site is by how annoying and passive aggressive their cookie banners are.