1. It encrypts your internet traffic in transit

It encrypts it in part of the transit, the part between the VPN server and the target is the same as it would have been without a VPN

2. It prevents your ISP or local network from seeing which destinations you connect to

True but now your VPN provider can see everything your ISP would have. Depending on the jurisdiction of your ISP and VPN, that could make it better or worse

When you buy a pc with mac os, you are usually stuck with it, at least for some time. When you buy a pc with windows, you can usually just uninstall it and install something else.

Why would ending sata ssd production create price pressure for m2 ssds? If anything, they should be able to produce more of those.