Ffs you do not get disappeared for using vpns especially personal ones. You can install vpns that circumvent firewalls as long as they are blessed by ccp and they are sold using wechat. For non compliant ones it's the same. It's you who misunderstands how authoritarian systems work, noone tries to nail you for doing something semi-illegal, you will be dissapeared for non-conforming not for exploiting system.
I work in the vpn industry and we had multiple consultations and tests done in china.
VPN's aren't illegal in china, and they don't go about random people who use them. Unless you are very vocal and high profile person no one will black bag you in a country of billion people, lol.
Yeah, you can look up how to setup hysteria2 and xray. Additionally you need to understand that firewall is different in different places, in some places like big cities you can even use plain openvpn (during daytime), in other more rural places almost everything is blocked.
PS is really powerful, actually using it is one of the worst experiences ever, it's just horrible in every way possible. After writing a few bigger scripts in ps I've literally swore to never touch it again except for interactive stuff and one-liners.
I get you on everything being either disconnected or surface level, unfortunately it just comes with experience mostly (same way as on linux). There are some deeper courses and books into specific windows services like exchange and AD that willgive you deeper understanding of everything.
To be honest in the last five month of using a1 mini in similar conditions only thing that required replacement is nozzle, everything else still works great.
I. Love. This. Company!