Ultimately being truly anonymous on the internet is pretty hard, and thus VPNs are mostly helpful for getting around region blocks for streaming services, not for obtaining more privacy.

I disagree.

There seems to constantly be two sides of the privacy discussion with public VPN options and they're both wrong on their own. It's correct that using a VPN on its own is not enough to keep you private online, fingerprinting being one example to why. However, not using a VPN but having no identifiable browser fingerprint doesn't either, since your IP is still a fingerprint too.

I like to give the following analogies:

1. Doing only an oil change on your vehicle but no other maintenance won't keep your vehicle running forever
2. Doing all vehicle maintenances except oil changes won't keep your vehicle running forever

If the goal is to be private, remember that a VPN is only one tool in a very large tool belt.