For a lot of people, I would think that the answer to "what is a human?" Would be closer to religious and philosophical definitions than scientific ones.

VPN also have their attack surface: https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/cyberpedia/ivanti-VPN-vulnerability-what-you-need-to-know

Both can be true, a hardened service with strict segmentation and authorization can be harder to compromise than a loosely maintained VPN appliance.

Even when designing secure software, appliances and protocols, they can have their flaws.

I would say there is no definite answer for the question, it's still on a case-by-case basis.

I agree that it might be a problem of lower-quality appliances. Anecdotally, mine is 20 years old and was repaired recently (some parts had to be manufactured as they don't make them anymore) and still works.

Is there an open alternative for Consumer Reports? The content of this link is blocked without a subscription it seems like. Thx!