Those are all allowed without explicit consent - it's right in the regulation. What isn't allowed without consent is all of the tracking and data-sharing nonsense that isn't actually required for the website to function.
Matomo was formerly known as Piwik
If a hospital would in secret sell my medical records to drug companies in order to get free medical supplies I would object on several grounds. First because they are doing it without telling me. Second because its not their data to sell. Third because it create an unfair market where drug companies who are more ethical get out competed.
* It helps me focus on the content my users need the most, and see what triggers donations.
* It helps me catch and diagnose traffic dips, and react to them.
* It helps me catch and diagnose unexpected issues. For instance, caching changes broke a component that accounts for 30% of my revenue. It would have stayed broken for a whole month if I didn't see the dip in events.
I will replace Google Analytics soon, but even as a tech-savvy person, it's a dreadful task. Google Analytics is free, simple, and incredibly reliable. Setting up your own self-hosted alternative, or paying a monthly fee for an alternative is a lot less desirable.
There are alternatives but as you say sadly none are as easy - probably because none have as much budget behind them. I see a number of comparison articles for gdpr compliant analytics, so it seems to have become its own market of sorts.
I have opted myself out of most Google services due to the intrusive nature, I wouldn't want to impose it on my site visitors (but I also have no need to monetize, so maybe a different ballpark).
Just knowing what I need to do requires me to wear my lawyer hat. Actually doing it requires me to wear my developer hat, or to pay other people a monthly fee.
I do this because I swore to do the right thing [1], and because I have a lot of time on my hands. I can't reasonably expect amateur bloggers to do the same. It's an unreasonable burden.