That was my point. They (forum users, I don’t think actual developers) insisted that it’s a middle solution. That I could use the application and whitelist only the browser and that some JS could bypass the VPN and get the real IP.
I got two years of Nord for that same reason, then two of Proton that’s about to end, so this was probably around 4 years ago.
That’s a very polite way to say what everybody thinks.