"the GDPR has the potential to escalate to those levels but in the spirit of the good natured enforcers ..."
The author seems to have the idea that bureaucratic EU systems are inherently "good" and that even if things look bad on paper, it will be fine because they are "good" people. This is not how the legal system or legal compliance works.
My chief concern is that this will end up being an instrument wielded by big business (through political connections) at the expense of smaller companies, especially smaller overseas competitors but also domestically. If EU-US relations continue to sour, it could also become a weapon in a hypothetical trade war, which I guess is probably one of the "benefits" from an EU government perspective.
Codifying privacy protection is important, but GDPR favors big companies and governments too strongly over already risk-burdened entrepreneurs.