I appreciate the input! I would love to explore your response more if your ok with that 
I agree with this but, why does that standard need to be PrivacyGuides? Personally, and I have said this before here I don’t neccassarily agree with those standards. I respect their decisions and I am glad they stick to that criteria but I don’t see it being the end all be all.
Both Windscribe and AirVPN are basically in the same boat here, they are not reccommended due to lack of audits and, I personally, don’t see audits as being essential in evaluating a VPN (thats not to say I dont see value in them, it just means a VPN without an audit history is not an automatic “No” for me). Which is why I am still willing to consider them.
I guess I am a bit confused by this. How would either of the VPN options I have laid out be in opposition to my stated threat model?
This seems like an odd suggestion considering the rest of your response. You are fine with me using an app or program with no VPN connection at all but are not ok with the idea of using a non reccommended VPN? Your basically saying that it would be better to trust my ISP with that data then a VPN thats not on the PG list.
I have considered this but it really would not work for my P2P needs and, for Plex, I would prefer using a VPN since I do use the remote access feature. If it was just for my home network I would of considered it.