Yes, many places have a serious need for Tor. But the bridge stats are misleading because bridges are exclusivity for circumventing censorship.

The stats for tor relays [0] are different:

    United States   418568 (20.37 %)
    Russia          335382 (16.32 %)
    Germany         172251 (8.38 %)
    France           92643 (4.51 %)
    Netherlands      76496 (3.72 %)
    United Kingdom   68674 (3.34 %)
    Indonesia        61917 (3.01 %)
    Ukraine          50331 (2.45 %)
    Canada           48246 (2.35 %)
    India            43953 (2.14 %)

Out of the roughly 66.5% of relay users represented here, 42.5% are from western countries.

[0]: https://metrics.torproject.org/userstats-relay-table.html

You should normalize those numbers for population at least, or better for share of non-Tor traffic.

I personally don't trust Five Eyes any more than any other country.

loads of pedos and criminals love hiding via that network, and those who run it likely know it, but they defend it as “privacy” and “freedom” yet this stat shows its being used in somewhat free countries.

While I'm sure you're right about some of Tor's users, there are plenty of perfectly valid (and legal) reasons for using tor in free countries too.