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The whole "threat model" thinking is useful for security, but I don't think it translates well to privacy and data sharing consent matters.

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I disagree on the former, but I agree on the later, technology is not a good substitute for consent.

Regarding the privacy:

If you are using a VPN to protect your privacy, then you are effectively transferring your trust from your ISP to your VPN provider. The VPN provider is your new ISP. So you have to make sure you trust the VPN provider more than your ISP.

It is a matter of trust, but by choosing a VPN you are not limited in your options by your geographical location as is the case with an ISP.

In my town there are 2 ISP I can choose to trust, whereas with VPN I can choose to trust from a much greater selection.

I don't use VPN when I'm on my home ISP but I do when I'm someplace where I don't control the gateway. My VPN is on a vultr VPS I control (in as much as I can control a VPS), and I do trust vultr (or digitalocean or any of the major VPS providers) more than I trust, let's say, the person who set up the wifi at the holiday inn.

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