[Elinvynia]

That is false, you only consent by your explicit action - clicking "accept". If you inspect element and remove the consent popup entirely, you have not consented.

[nicbou]

Exactly. Consent is opt-in, not opt-out. That's the law.

If a website does not respect that, it probably won't respect your choices either, so you might as well block the cookie banner and all tracking scripts.

[IanCal]

It's not false. You are right that you haven't consented until you actively do so, but that's not the same thing as having the website work.

[tcfhgj]

At least this the legal requirement