The indifferent mass prevails in every country, similarly cold to the First Amendment and Censorship. And engineers just do what they love to do, coping with reality. Activism is not for everyone.
The ones inventing the VPNs are a small minority, and it seems that CCP isn't really that bothered about such small minorities as long as they don't make a ruckus. AFAIU just using a VPN as such is very unlikely to lead to any trouble in China.
For example in geopolitical matters the media is extremely skewed everywhere, and everywhere most people kind of pretend it's not. It's a lot more convenient to go with whatever is the prevailing narrative about things going on somewhere oceans away than to risk being associated with "the enemy".
Wholeheartedly agree with the rest of the comment.