Totally agree, you're preaching to the choir here (I'm amused at this being the first time I'm receiving downvotes but I'm glad it's because I might have sounded like a slop AI apologist)
Those few people I know that find chatgpt at the same time incredible and very useful, are using the official app from their iphone, just to give you an idea. If they knew how to search the web 20 years ago they forgot it. And the web has worsened a lot in the meantime as you said. One of them was complaining to me a few months ago how it was considering incresing his subscription level or something, and that he needed it to get ahead at work, while I was trying to explain to him that at best it's regurgitated stuff, no smarts are there, and I don't think down the line he's gonna really save time (what's very sad is that he wants to use it to help him write medical research papers)
Not everyone is US based, but ofc it's an understandable assumption since it's a very populous and well Internet-connected country (plus we're discussing in English).
To save one's behind when torrenting (pirating is a bit generic), a VPN is a great tool, but falling into the privacy/security and legal nightmare of a cheap service installing malware (or getting their proprietary app hacked) and/or stealing residential connections is a big risk (like with those services where a huge budget is spent on predatory marketing on youtube); paradoxically having that unrestricted VPN app installed might mean that a lot more people are torrenting with your residential connection. This point is not a deal breaker, just a "beware", do your homework and isolate that connection within your OS or even better within your network.
Other counterpoint: within a country where they haven't started to really crack down on it, you are protected by the impossibility of fining / suing / arresting millions of people at once. More people sign up for VPNs and torrent from outside the country, the more their connationals will also need protection.
Sorry for the wall of text..