GDPR holds if you sell in the EU, irrespective of whether you are in the EU. Also it’s really quite a decent law, barring a few obvious quirks. It can only be a serious hindrance to success for the scummiest kinds of startups.
We can’t fire people on the spot but close enough (here in NL). It’s true ish that we can’t motivate people with fear though, we have to actually make them like their jobs, and carefully consider at the right moment whether to extend contracts. Again, not really a hindrance.
The % of tech workers in both the EU and the US that are near any country’s retirement age is so small that I think either you’re kidding or you’re not really trying to make an actual argument at all.