and yet you are here, creating a bigger and more interesting footprint with every single post you type.
With regards to cost effectiveness, it would be worse if it had to be redeveloped, and frankly given that the internet is free at point of use it's none of your business, anything you pay is for access.
With regards to warranted, it is actually necessary. as noted above so that sites can send information to you, you may think 'but i don't want them to do that' but without the ability to send information to you there is no page for you to see. Remember the internet is not a passive window that you are looking through, every single character on every single page that you visit is sent specifically to you, you are not 'just happening' to see it, you have requested it, it has been created and sent to you and no one else. This is just technically the way that the internet works, in fact any network works, in fact any transfer of information works where you have many to many relationships between holders of information and providers of information.
If you really want to be private on-line, then get off line, that's the only solution.
If you are just referring to the content being visible, as opposed to merely the fact that you've been somewhere then encryption resolves that, it may not look like it is doing much, but it is, it's just very transparent to the end user as anyone has to be able to use it.
You mention above that 'the problems' still exist when you use VPN's without actually saying what the problems are other than vague handwaving, some detail might help.