If US companies take that route, that would give fledgling EU startups that have no choice but to comply with GDPR from day one a nice little moat around a mark

If US companies take that route, that would give fledgling EU startups that have no choice but to comply with GDPR from day one a nice little moat around a market of half a billion people. (And cause the survivors to come stronger out of it, unlike most protectionist-type measures.) Now let's try to figure out that tricky backup problem!