> Arguably this part of GDPR failed miserably.

I'd definitely argue against that. For a hot minute they were truly terrible, with occasionally hundreds of tickboxes (Looking at you Techcrunch). Now 80% of sites I go to seem to use the same provider, which has a primary "Accept all", but rejecting all is usually a matter of clicking 3-4 radio buttons and a secondary "Confirm choices" button.

That's still pretty damned dark pattern-y, no doubt, but it's light years better than my previous options of either accepting or accepting.