4 years ago a VPN worked perfectly. When I visited recently multiple VPNs and VPN providers would become blocked as I started using them. Even though the traffic is encrypted they use a heuristic to identify VPN usage. If you're moving a ton of traffic (streaming, torrenting, etc) forget it.

Pretty much every expat uses a VPN. They get blocked but it's a cat and mouse game. If you work for a multinational Western company, corporate VPNs are pretty much solid.

Other than that, nothing much day to day. It's not North Korea. Of course common sense applies (avoid overt political discussions).

This is big. VPNs are no longer a reliable way of getting to Gmail etc.

You don't notice it day to day, but it beats you down over the long run.

the irony being that only Americans care about that

Americans are much more oblivious than Europeans. Most of my foreign colleagues over the years have been from Europe, and would complain about it more than me. Other Asians (korean and Japanese) don't mention it much.