I'm afraid I'm going to criticize most of your VPN recommendations.
Surfshark previously used CloudFlare on their VPN servers (I'm not sure if they still do - there have been conflicting reports). That makes it an instant avoid for that reason alone.
I've posted about CyberGhost before -
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5203656.msg53196238#msg53196238. Another one to definitely avoid.
IPVanish keeps logs and hands them over to the authorities -
https://restoreprivacy.com/ipvanish-provides-logs-to-authorities/.
NordVPN servers were accessed by a hacker and they hid this fact for 18 months before it finally came out. They were previously a good VPN provider, but I would place zero trust in a company which covers up such a fact from users which have been affected.
For detailed VPN reviews, look here:
https://restoreprivacy.com/ipvanish-provides-logs-to-authorities/For simple VPN reviews, look here:
https://www.privacytools.io/providers/vpn/
In terms of browsers, Tor is obviously the best, but many people do not want to use it because of the issues you have outlined - speed, breaking sites, etc. Firefox is the best "standard" browser, but there are a number of tweaks and add-ons you should be using to improve your privacy more. Start here and work down the page -
https://www.privacytools.io/browsers/#webrtc. Disable WebRTC, download the commended add-ons, and implement the about:config tweaks.
Don't know much about SurfShark or IPVanish, but apparently NordVPN's situation was not as straightforward as you say. I've read that the server management company failed to disclose the breach to Nord and also the breach did not affect any user data, and that's why it took so long for them to disclose it. Other than that I like that they now do yearly 3rd party audits.