> applies to _people_ from the EU rather than just people currently in the EU.

No, it applies to "data subjects who are in the Union" (art. 3 - "Territorial scope"), not from the Union.

(This is for non-EU data processing organizations; the EU-based organizations/companies must apply the GDPR to everyone in the world)

The company I work for interprets it as any EU citizen any where on the globe, so we just implemented GDPR for every one regardless of their location or particulars.