> I advocate somewhat strongly for paid 3rd-party VPNs, not because I think they're great, but because I think they are sometimes the least-bad option -- 3rd pa

> I advocate somewhat strongly for paid 3rd-party VPNs, not because I think they're great, but because I think they are sometimes the least-bad option -- 3rd party VPNs address privacy problems that self-hosted VPNs can't Well said. I would add that they're also useful in situations where you don't care about privacy at all. E.g. you don't care if your ISP logs that you're watching Netflix, you don't care if your VPN logs that you're watching Netflix, but you (and to some extent Netflix) have an interest in making it seem like your computer is located in a different country than it is. Region-shifting and preventing non-government adversaries from discovering your real identity from your IP address are both valid reasons to use a commercial VPN. I suppose the reason why those who oppose commercial VPNs discount these two is that they're mostly used for IP infringement.