One of the points of having a VPN is to be able to run software without every single middle man on the network knowing what you are running.

For example, say someone hypothetically wanted to post a comment on twitter that, again, hypothetically, was politically inconvenient for some authority figure.

The fact they launched twitter at about the time that comment was posted might be something they would prefer to not have reported on the internet at all, and certainly not without encryption.

Generally, this falls into the general category of "I may disagree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it".