You don't have to pay and trust a third party. You can host your own VPN solution. It's not hard.
Discussion
nostr:npub18ams6ewn5aj2n3wt2qawzglx9mr4nzksxhvrdc4gzrecw7n5tvjqctp424 best resource for doing that. What’s not hard for some can be very challenging for others. Looking at me here
This would be the easiest for self-hosted https://getoutline.org/
Don't sell yourself so short here. I've seen you do some great stuff, Bevo. Here's a quick and dirty guide. Buy a virtual private server from a provider with bitcoin. Choose to install Ubuntu. Google how to setup a Wireguard VPN on Ubuntu. Do that. Install a Wireguard VPN client on your phone. That's it!
Indeed, however. i don't see how this solution is relevant to your OP. If I'm hosting my own VPN and then post on Nostr then what ever client i used has that IP. Your OP seems more like a YouTube AD for VPN's. (hackers are sniffing your internet traffic on public WiFi, get a VPN. so a middleman you pay, can sniff your traffic) self hosting your own VPN is an entirely different use case and threat model.
Hmm. Not everyone is out to get you. Maybe you aren't familiar with Mullvad VPN if you've hosted your own VPN for over a decade such as myself. They were raided and asked to hand over user data by authorities and were unable to comply because they have no user data 🤣