If properly following a law is malicious, then it's a bad law.
There's a reason you don't hear about people "maliciously complying" with HIPAA or PCI laws. Because that's just called compliance.
No excuses for poorly done EU regulations.
You can comply with the law without banners and dark pattern defaults. These businesses are maliciously complying by making things more obnoxious and painful than they need to be.
A comparison would be a store who was angry the law says you have to be 21 to buy alcohol and starts requesting everyone, even people not buying alcohol, to show ID or be kicked out. That's not a bad law, that's a bad business maliciously complying.