My go-to exit node is in Albania, especially when using NewPipe. I heard that its illegal for YouTube to run ads in Albania, so if that's true they might not put in effort to block Albanian IPs.

Aside from that, I can sympathize as that happens very often to me as well. I have JS turned off by default so when I see a site asking me to turn it on its usually for the cloudflare bot check. I'm not doing any heavy duty website usage by any means, so I have some patience for that, but also I am far less likely to use a site that requires JS which makes VPN hurdles easier to manage. I basically only switch it off when I need to access a .gov site.

My VPN is on when I need to be on. It's not on 24/7.

I use proton vpn on my home machine 24/7. never have to switch servers.

I don't use a privacy VPN in my daily life. I don't trust any VPN company any more than my ISP, so i don't really see the point.

I do VPN back to my home network on my mobile decices, this is mostly for easier access to selfhosted services, but also has the advantage of not giving servers a mobile IP when I'm out, which I believe is a more critical datapoint to protect

I've used Proton VPN for over 2 years. I also usually get captchad with some websites, the cloudflare ones just ask to click a button, the google ones are annoying, yes.

I almost never have to switch servers, only exception is YouTube (through GrayJay) but servers in Chile worked 99.9% of the time (don't know why) so I didn't have to spend too much time on that.

I don't recall having connection issues, I can even game online with this VPN

Edit: some websites blocked the VPN, I usually either gave up on them or turned off VPN if I had to use them (very few financial institutions)

I also have a VPN on at the router level 24/7. Zero issues.

It could be your VPN, but could also be a conflict if you have another DNS selected on your browser or devices. Try turning off any custom DNS resolvers and see if of there's a difference.

As hosts continue to shift the burden of exploit protection onto the visitor, the automatic blocking of VPN exit nodes has exploded and for that reason, VPNs are increasingly often unwelcome. Each person will have to choose at which point an increase in their privacy is less valuable to them than what they get in a visit to a site that attempts to erode that.

There are a couple sites that I turn my VPN off for(like my bank) but for every other, when I see the "You've been blocked" error page, I just close the tab and move on.

Privacy takes work unfortunately. I don't have too hard of a time. Takes me a few seconds to switch servers if something is blocked, not a few minutes. I take more pleasure in staying private than I do in getting things that much faster.

Run your own VPN on a hosted VPS located at a major hub like NYC

You get the privacy and the blazing speeds and no need for any pinky-promise that logs are not being sold nor subpoenaed

Down side ofc is paying for the VPS

Where are you located?

You should know that WWIII is kind of underway now and underwater sea cables are being damaged in multiple locations, so inter continental lag increases are expected, VPN or not.

E: I noticed it’s easier to downvote than to do a quick search.

https://www.tomshardware.com/networking/two-undersea-cables-reportedly-damaged-off-the-coast-of-perth-following-suspicious-vessel-activity-company-ceo-says-faults-happened-straight-after-each-other-and-in-close-proximity

https://www.telecomreviewasia.com/news/industry-news/30159-vietnams-four-subsea-cable-faults-disrupt-30-of-international-capacity/