idkman

I was in the same circumstances when I started. But then I asked around which helped me properly configure it.

working on my end

You can find plenty of versions on Demonoid https://www.dnoid.to/. I've used them on bare metal and on virtualization.

I just checked my DNS blocked list. Topaz software do download their models from their repositories, but I haven't come across any issues. About safety, well, its upto your threat model.

Privacy focused frontend of YouTube

We got freetube too, you can always play on mpv

Then, Proton it is

Mullvad or Proton

Well ofcourse. WhatsApp works on a propriatary network where they store all your chats

KVM would be a safe way to test your pirated software. But it downgrades the performance.

XMPP? It works.

WhatsApp was build upon XMPP protocol. You can look into XMPP clients.

Besides that WhatsApp is not the way to communicate anyway. Normies use it because it is put up on their face and considered to be widely acceptable among them, while rhey don't understand how privacy invading it is.

https://www.protondb.com/