> But when that option is hidden, I've resorted to opening my browser's developer tools and deleting the banner element from the page altogether. It’s a desperate workaround for a system that refuses to offer a legitimate "no."
... Okay, but then does the site actually drop cookies?
It shouldn't, as it shouldn't save your preferences without you actually having pressed the button to save it, but I wouldn't put it past some web-dev to save that cookie as a default 'everything enabled' on first load, and only edit it to actually reflect the user's preferences once they've gone through the motions.
Doing anything other than not dumping those cookies is a dick move in this sort of case, since the user hasn't provided clear and obvious consent.
... Okay, but then does the site actually drop cookies?