I would really recommend looking into Usenet. I was in your position a few months ago (starting to look for private trackers), but ended up hearing about Usenet and going that route instead. It has been amazing so far. It has everything I am looking for, I don’t need to worry about a VPN, and I can download as fast as my ISP can go, so I get my content in minutes instead of hours. I also don’t have to worry about my VPN disconnecting for some reason and my ISP sending me a nasty letter. The only downside is, if you want the best, you’ll have to pay for an indexer and a downloader, but it’s not that expensive and is certainly worth it for the benefits over torrents.
As much as I hate to send anyone to Reddit, the wiki on the Usenet subreddit is great. They explain the concepts and components and have a list of good indexers and providers.
If you have any other questions or need help setting anything up, feel free to send me a PM.