@Weatherlawyer I haven’t used Opera since the Chinese bought it, but that VPN service you talk about seems more like a proxy than a proper VPN.
If you want to try a VPN for free take a look at Cloudflare Warp, it’s gratis and they have apps for all OSes.
You can then compare those browser timeouts and form a better opinion.
Can’t stop the signal, Mal!..
Source: https://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/threads/vpn-blips.38056/