
But I am torn between NordVPN and Surfshark. I am FINALLY going to get off my b**t and get a VPN.

The entire point of VPN is protection and anonymity. If it becomes widespread that some places won't work when connecting via NordVPN, or perhaps any VPN, it will be a big problem. It isn't a big problem for me, although it is inconvenient to have to pause my VPN. This is a problem that Nord folks cannot seem to solve. There seem to be some organizations that can tell you are on a VPN, for example, Amazon. I didn't run Speedtest, but my experience was not noticeably different from not being on VPN. On some recent travel to New Zealand and briefly in Australia, it worked fine using servers there. I don't stream movies, and an not a gamer. I have used it extensively in the USA, and occasionally, just to try it, I will use servers in other countries. With NordVPN I get around 350/225 for down/up. I have gigabit fiber home internet, and typically, without using NordVPN, get in about 500Mbps downstream and 400Mbps upstream. If I run SpeedTest there is somewhat of a degradation compared to unprotected, but that is expected. I use it on my Mac mini, iPhone, and iPad. I have used NordVPN for a 2-3 years now, maybe more.
