I’m not smart enough to explain the privacy benefits, but what I can say is that a vpn is so useful for getting access to region-locked websites. People usually mention that you’ll get access to exclusive Netflix content, but if you’re the sort to use a vpn at all, you’re probably not the sort to use Netflix anyway. With a vpn, I can use Tubi despite living outside the US, and novel-translation sites that refuse traffic from my country don’t even give those ‘verify you’re a human’ prompts.

Also, I can switch locations to a place with better upload/download speeds, so things that would before take at least 5 minutes get done in seconds.