My use cases show it's not.
1. I connect to a VPN to jump to I2P and Tor when they are blocked by specific ISP that lets AirVPN connections but not Tor's. Once the VPN connection is live I can then connect to Tor or I2P and further enhance identity protection and actually hide how I use the Internet from the ISP.
2. I use the VPN even with an ISP that does not enforce blocks, in order to access medical sites, use political tools and any other activity I am not comfortable to let my ISP know or store for years - since in some countries there's mandatory data retention from one to six years of all traffic including metadata. Tor would do the same but most Tor exit nodes block specific connections, or the final service block Tor, or the service I need would be too slow for the Tor network. Typically when I have to download large documents and tools whose source would provide important clues (that would remain stored for years for data retention again) regarding my health status, my political preferences and any other thing I don't want to be potentially used for profiling or other purposes by my ISP - and everyone accessing my ISP data - , and/or stored for years.
3. I connect to a VPN when I am forced to use a crappy ISP that shapes anything, literally anything, except HTTP-S and makes FTP and anything else a pain. By connecting on TCP to port 443 I can enjoy FTP and some other protocols full speed, even when the activity is not privacy sensitive. In this case too Tor is very problematic for performance and because most exit nodes block some destination ports I need for FTP etc.
These are my own use cases and I think that they are not uncommon. I guess that a few bucks a month is a fair price even for one of them. OK, case 3 is not very privacy-related and could be off topic from your initial message, but it shows how a VPN can be worthy in occurrences not strictly privacy related.