Honest question: it's still a consensus that they do have value in situations such as airport Wi-Fi, correct?

Separately from that, I still do wonder whether, if you subscribe to a VPN that has well-examined security practices and whose reputation depends on such practices, whether it still may have value over relying on the security over a local ISP which may not have as much expertise or reputation investment with respect to security.

I'm not arguing, just trying to understand the issue better.