Who is subsidising it? You mean a loss-leader?
Previous consoles have been loss-leaders, the original switch isnt. Im not sure about the new gen switch, but considering the success of the first one, i doubt it is.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price in the U.S. is $299.99. As we have stated before, unlike Wii U, the Nintendo Switch price point was set to ensure that the hardware is not basically sold at a loss

https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2017/170201_2e.pdf page 15

I mean, a VPN is kinda meant for untrusted networks.

The linked paper in the article is quite detailed, and describes the first step.
Essentially, most VPNs are configured by default to allow local network access (so, internet traffic goes through the VPN, but you don’t need to disconnect from the VPN to use your printer).
The attack requires the rogue network to assign IP addresses in the range of the targeted server. So if they know the server you are trying to access, they can make your local network contain the target servers IP. At which point, the VPN client will treat it as local traffic, and try to reach it through the local rogue network.

VPN clients can be configured around this.
It’s also always worth making sure a network that you don’t know is serving rfc1918 addresses.