I'm on Verizon so I don't get to choose if I need one. I have to use one on my phone at least.
They are still useful for lumping your traffic in with others for copyright infringement. Torrent clients offer the files for sharing while downloading.
They are still useful for some simple geo evasion as well.
They aren't a solution for every security issue at all. Tor is generally better to run from open wifi from a tails USB rather than from a VPN.
Also, many VPNs actually log things they can provide to the FBI even though they lie and say they don't. They can get a NSL and end up having to without being able to tell you that they did. Sometimes a NSL canary is used, but not always.
I'm not sure what you mean by "I don't get to choose if I need one". Both Android and iOS natively support VPNs, and most corporate phones are set up to connect to the corporate network securely via VPN - on many US carriers.
I think chisleu meant that they consider Verizon to be so untrustworthy that not getting a VPN is really not a viable choice to make. So chisleu doesn't get to choose whether to use a VPN or not.
They are still useful for lumping your traffic in with others for copyright infringement. Torrent clients offer the files for sharing while downloading.
They are still useful for some simple geo evasion as well.
They aren't a solution for every security issue at all. Tor is generally better to run from open wifi from a tails USB rather than from a VPN.
Also, many VPNs actually log things they can provide to the FBI even though they lie and say they don't. They can get a NSL and end up having to without being able to tell you that they did. Sometimes a NSL canary is used, but not always.