Maybe I'm missing something, but why is "not sponsoring podcasts" a plus for a VPN service? Personally Mullvad is my favorite and AFAIK, they also don't sponsor any podcasts, but I don't think that would influence how I feel about Mullvad.
I used Mullvad for a few years and was largely happy with it. I got a multi-year deal on ProtonVPN that was too good to pass up, so now I'm on that. Overall, I think I liked Mullvad better so may go back to it when my time is up.
I used NordVPN back quite a few years ago. Once they started advertising on cable tv shows, I knew it was time to jump ship. A VPN service spending that kind of money is either burning through cash too quickly to survive, selling user data, or a government honeypot.
That's more about what's in their marketing material ("when a service isn't being honest in their advertising") rather than where they actually put that marketing material.
And yeah, then I'd agree, if Mullvad started lying or pushing useless services down my throat, I'd definitely dump it quickly.
It shows scale and also makes them a bigger target for lawsuit which get's settled through access.
Check out what vpn have been sued over the last year (they all have been no log companies) and you will quickly realize that logs are being shared by anyone of size. The smaller the service the better.
I'm also not sure why sponsoring podcasts is relevant, but FWIW I have heard ads for ProtonVPN on the Darknet Diaries podcast (https://darknetdiaries.com/sponsors/).
It affects my decision making because the stuff that gets plastered across podcasts and YouTube videos is often crap the hosts themselves clearly haven't even used. Just my opinion based on the times I've actually researched the products I've seen sponsoring content. YMMV
