VPN is like SSL some time ago (and there were times when a browser would come without SSL, and you'd have to explicitly download it yourself) - it quickly becomes a basic necessity even in civilized societies, let alone say Russia, Iran and the likes.

So you mean I can trust an American corporation that ships its software with telemetry on by default and has a history of data-mining its users more than my standard ISP? Ladybird(alpha) cannot come soon enough.

Tunneling all my traffic through someone else's machine is not the same as encrypting the communication between me and the destination website.