is this just a loophole to be able to force certain cookies on us anyway?
Absolutely. The phrase itself is a weasel phrase expressing that they’re legitimately interested in giving you tons of malware to increase their profit potential but trying to trick you into thinking it means that the purposes of that malware are more legitimate than that which is easier to refuse.
Most of them won’t even give you the option to reject it like othercookies, only letting you “object” to the fact that you’re getting it whether you want to or not.