I've never read an answer from an attorney specializing in GDPR, but I've been seeing this for years. It's very popular in Germany and seems to have spread to the rest of the EU.

I assume it's catching on more recently because I've started to see people asking about it online more frequently.

In my layman's understanding, it's compliant with the law because they still provide a way to opt out of cookies and no one is entitled to read their articles for free.

So the choice is pay or allow tracking.

Tbh, you can easily just open the link in an incognito window, or if you're paranoid, an incognito/private window of a browser you never use. Then once you close the window, their cookies get wiped anyway.

Google VPN is/was only available in select countries.

https://support.google.com/googleone/answer/7582172

There are 2 lists of countries applicable here. The list of countries where the VPN is included with a Google One subscription and the list where you could use the VPN while traveling.

You'll notice that countries known for internet censorship are missing from both lists, so using it for that purpose wouldn't work at all.