The consent emails are evidence that people in charge were mindlessly following some rules given by some consultants. Not all of them were necessary, and some

The consent emails are evidence that people in charge were mindlessly following some rules given by some consultants. Not all of them were necessary, and some of them might be harmful to those sending them down the road: if they had a valid reason before but asked, question is what happens if the person on which data was collected rescinds their permission? Answering "you refuse, but we have a legit reason according to GDPR" is a recipe for bad PR at least.