Every VPN I know is blocked by every geolocked platform I know. The IP geolocation APIs return a code indicating the IP is a VPN exit.

Pretty much every non-techy person I know under the age of about 50 uses VPNs for accessing regionally restricted streaming TV and sports[0] content, and getting around geoblocks (on US news sites that won't serve to Europe due to GDPR, trading/gambling sites, etc.).

I am pretty sure the sheer quantity of VPN ads on YT are also good evidence that they work and people are signing up. It wouldn't make sense to scale up a marketing approach to those levels unless earlier, smaller campaigns had positive returns.

[0] It's worth calling out explicitly the crazy lengths people will go to to both (a) find a free stream of a sports match; and (b) find a way to watch a match when they're travelling and can't access whatever service they usually watch it on.

I like NordVPN still. If there's any reason I shouldn't I'm all ears but haven't had an issue so far. I travel a lot and I definitely do feel better having my traffic routed through a VPN vs opening it up to whatever random entity happens to control the wifi I'm connected to, despite all the issues with them