I feel like every few months one of these holier-than-thou anti-VPN articles hits HN where the author completely ignores the real demographics and use cases of commercial VPNs and acts like our primary concerns are ISPs finding out what color of underwear we like. Most people use VPNs to watch Netflix and steal Game of Thrones. They don't leave them turned on because they noticeably increase browsing and gaming lag.
The VPN sidesteps all of that, and allows me to use the full speed of the connection - otherwise we’re throttled to about 40%.
Yes, I could and probably will set up my own endpoint, but for less than a dollar a month this is just an easy and cheap solution, for now.