Would internet services be subject to, let’s say Swiss privacy laws, if you were connected to a Swiss server from your VPN? And if they do, would it make that much of a difference that it’s worth the occasional hassle of having to change the language and region?
To add to the exit node thing: many VPN providers, especially the “watch foreign Netflix for cheap” types, lie about where their servers are. They use tricks to misrepresent the location of their IP addresses so that they don’t need to contract 180 different data centers. I’ve seen plenty of Norwegian IP addresses mysteriously originate from Amsterdam. Faking IP geolocation information isn’t that hard to do for most GeoIP databases.
If your exit node pretends to be in one country for its privacy regulations, double check that their servers actually run in that country, or those regulations may be worthless.