> as any critique of the EU seems to be met with universal outrage.
Absolutely not, in fact as an EU citizen, I am the first to call out issues and complain about things getting changed. That's why there are nicer privacy protections for example in the EU.
That said, the comment doesn't really apply to "only EU".
> a simple database with ~500k entries (~10GB on disk), which has burned €45M (!) so far and employs a team of ~50 people
"Burned €45M" with zero citiation, on even where the funding goes to, there are lot of regulations around medical databases, and for good reason.
Tell me outside the EU doesn't have overblown budgets also?