The problem now is that it's the producer that decides what the packaging is, but it's the consumer (or the state) who pays for the collection and recycling. By making the producer pay for it, you give them an incentive to make it more efficient.
Except there is no incentive whatsoever; it is just pay bureaucrats with your consumer's money, so they can report improvement in fake eco-points. Most garbage collection money sinks have pricing like 1000 EUR yearly forever + 0.01 EUR per ton of arbitrarily unsustainable trash.
Once the consumer has paid, it's your money now. The incentive is clear, less packaging means more money you keep. That only big producers will actually see the per-ton payments as significant instead of just having to pay absurd registration fees is a separate issue.
Literally, no; as a small producer, I would have to pay (yearly, per country!) WEEE and PPWR money regardless of my sales, while per-volume costs are so low that the optimisation of a product footprint is meaningless. There is no de minimis though, I have to fill out forms that I have produced like 0.8 kg of cardboard and 0.3 kg of e-waste, yet collected nothing since none of my users would like ever use 1:1 rule to send me an out-of-life USB dongle while buying a new one.
It’s even less sensible when you consider the effect that small businesses have on this. But I guess it’s just another heavily lobbied law, sponsored by companies responsible for 80-90% of packaging.
it is not sensible at all because businesses and individuals who dispose of that packaging already pay for the privilege.