I don't think those are invalid points, but one consideration is that if a standardized format for encapsulating and controlling PII did emerge and was adopted,

I don't think those are invalid points, but one consideration is that if a standardized format for encapsulating and controlling PII did emerge and was adopted, the value of the previously-released personal data would decay over time. That is, if your current PII suggests that you are a fan of (Brand X) right now, it is more valuable than if it shows you were a fan of (Brand X) 5, 10, 20 years ago. There will still be correlations that can be drawn from historical data, and some data's value doesn't decay as a function of time (DOB, for example), but it would still be an incremental improvement over the current system. As technologists, I don't think throwing up our hands and saying "It's too [late|difficult|expensive] to solve this problem!" is the right solution in most cases.