alt Hacker NewsI agree with you! And your point about cookie banners underlines that we can't just rely on regulation (because companies are so good are subverting or outright lobbying their way out of them).
Just as with the open source movement, there needs to be a business model (and don't forget that OSS is a business model, not a technology) that competes with the old way of doing things.
Getting that new business model to work is the hard part, but we did it once with open source and I think we can do it again with cloud infrastructure. But I don't think local-first is the answer--that's just a dead end because normal users will never go with it.
I've found people want local software and access. This is a major reason why people like mobile more now than desktops outside of the obvious of having it in their pocket. A mobile app gives you more of a private feel than going to website and entering your info. In addition to an extent it is kept local first, due to sync issues.