Exactly the point. It's a security measure for regular people, who don't commit crimes and aren't a high value target for government agencies.

With a VPN your employee can't track what websites you're visiting over the WiFi in the break room (looking for a new job, visiting the union website for legal advice).

The hotel can't track what you're doing on their WiFi.

While traveling to not really democratic countries the government can't spy on you (in many muslim countries the typical US/European browsing behavior is probably illegal).