VPN has become a much misused term.
People calling web proxies VPNs and so on.
Personally use a mesh VPN, tailscale, it forms a mesh between all my devices, so can do things like ssh from my mobile phone into a linux machine (assuming both have access to the wider internet).
Or run a private web server on a machine at home that is only accessible from my devices wherever they may be physically.
It's a breath of fresh air, over the previous generation VPNs. No configuration required. Just install tailscale on each device, login in and it becomes part of the private mesh network with each device having it's own static IP.