Well that depends on what you are doing. Also, it depends what type of IP range you are working with. Most every website and API will recognize that you are using a data center IP.
With proxies you can easily switch ips, have multiple threads running with different ips. With a vpn, you would be changing your whole connection ip, all applications and you would need a vpn software, it won’t work like a proxy that you copy and paste the ip and port, and magically connects.
Basically proxies are slower, but are much more flexible, you can just copy and paste the numbers and add to any tool/bot.
Vpn is way faster and more secure. But gives you less flexibility, as you need a software and it changes the whole machine ip.
Digital ocean, google cloud, AWS ASNs are likely flagged. If you are just using them as scraper accounts you shouldn't have a problem. You are better off finding or making some proxies on a residential or cellular network.
Pretty sure most people are setting up on botnet nodes. I see it frequently people using residential or cellular IPs to try to thwart some of my systems which allows them to get past initial checks however I find other behaviors that lead up to me finding them. These same people will also launch DDoS attacks from similar IP addresses. This would obviously be the best way to get residential IP's outside of paying for them albeit not legal.
If you find any let me know. I don't think most people will openly post about it since they could bring so much value if used properly.Yeah I thought about botnets and rats and decided not to go down that path. I don't even want to knowingly buy any hacked RDPs.
I can pay for good residential servers as long as the price is reasonable and it's legal.