LyonSyonII VPNs can be pretty expensive, and I was wondering if it was the norm to use one, as the privacy benefits it provides are small.
It all depends on your theat model I would say. VPNs with no-log policies offer two privacy benefits, 1) your ISP cannot see or log what sites you are visiting, nor block your access to sites, which is great if your ISP is known to look into what sites people visit to find misconduct or block sites entirely, and 2) neither websites you visit nor peers you connect to can see or log your real unique IP address but will only see a shared one, which is great if you worry an attacker will get access to server logs to doxx all visitors or members of the site, or will trick you into doing a WebRTC call with them or downloading a file from them to doxx you.
Any VPN provider with a no-log policy is a good choice. The ones mentioned in this thread is the most reputable ones, and I use one of those myself, but to be fair, all legitimate no-log VPN providers offer the above two privacy benefits just the same, even the free ones like RiseUp and ProtonVPN free-tier.
But if you do not see yourself being at risk of being doxxed in any sense, and live in a decently free country with a largely unfiltered ISP, the benefits of using a VPN is more limited.