Censorship evasion is no longer trivial. Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) exists and makes it difficult to use even VPNs. Shadowsocks works but has limited UDP support out of the box iirc.

There are massive regional variations, so what I say is likely not universal, but my non-techie acquaintances still successfully use VPNs, in their case to use services like Facebook and WhatsApp.

I do not know what provider they use, but their knowledge of VPNs go no further than knowing that "VPN = facebook access", so it would seem that "commoners" still manage at least in some bigger regions.