Agree, but: Most free VPNs are run by state-owned actors, may also in fact be honey-pots, which are now dripping with meta-data for literally everything you do on the Internet. Whilst that is not strictly worse than MiTMd HTTPS, it is still a step in the wrong direction.
I'm not quite sure what you're insinuating about Tor. Tor is an opensource project govern by a non-profit. If you're worried about things like backdoors, that's why it was opensourced in the first place.
I'm not sure how you're connecting the CIA with Tor. I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA uses Tor. I know the State Department does.
That's a dramatic statement however and you didn't support it at all with your links. Can you back up the claim that most free VPNs are state-owned? That is what the reply was likely asking for.
