There was the DNT header, that was a bit to simplistic, but was never implemented https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/...
The thing people need to understand here is that the annoyance is not due to lack of technical solutions, or regulations forcing something. It is explicitly wanted by the industry so they can maximize the consent rate. The browser solution is probably the best technical/user friendly one, but ad tech/data gathering industry won't have any consent. As they control most of the web, they will never do that
Android is also about to lock down "sideloading", another "great" dysphemism for "installing software".
Moving the Overton window on this has been so successful, that even people in our industry happily accepted the much maligned dysphemisms of "jailbreaking" and "rooting" for what used to be called "local admin rights" and look upon such access as if it's only something pirates, criminals or malware spreaders would want to do.
I say this as someone who is running an Android phone with a kernel with some backported patches applied and compiled by myself. The fact that I can do it is great. The fact that the entire industry is trying to make it as frustrating as possible for me to do this under the guise of false premises such as "security" is disheartening.