Maybe masking VPNs ? Is that even a possibility? Like how people can mask something as Chrome already.

actively blocking connections from VPNs. I’m not sure what to do about that.

There are a small minority of sites I encounter that do that. Usually I will try a couple different VPN locations. If that doesn't work, I just search for the data somewhere else. I know that doesn't work for everyone. I also encounter a lot of 'Verification' checks. They are kind of anoying but I figure, I'd rather that than just having my data hanging out in the ether unprotected.

Use the tor browser in conjunction with your VPN. The tor exit nodes aren't flagged.