I was in the same circumstances when I started. But then I asked around which helped me properly configure it.

working on my end

You can find plenty of versions on Demonoid https://www.dnoid.to/. I’ve used them on bare metal and on virtualization.

I just checked my DNS blocked list. Topaz software do download their models from their repositories, but I haven’t come across any issues. About safety, well, its upto your threat model.

Privacy focused frontend of YouTube

We got freetube too, you can always play on mpv

Then, Proton it is

Mullvad or Proton

It’s not really a hassle to configure your i2p node. I2p network recently went through a DDOS attack. Even during that point of time I had no issue surfing/torrenting.

• if you configure your node correctly, you won’t see much difference in bandwidth.
• i2psnark can be fast.
• but clearnet comes with an issue of tracking.