Theres some ragebait youtuber who goes up to strangers, stands about 4 or 5 feet away and just starts filming them. If they tell him not to he keeps filming, if they walk away he follows them, if they go to a cop he just walks off and if they smack him in the face he presses charges and sues… and he posts their reactions to his filming as his content.
The existing laws on photography in public are like you said, about a century old. They arent written with almost the entire first world having a hd camcorder on them at all times. They predate any form of mass communication short of the newspaper.
Id argue that something has to be done, im not sure what but the laws are out of date, it should not be legal for youtube “pranksters” to not blur peoples faces without getting release forms and then profiting off the content.