[fragmede]

The thing that Tailscale also allows you to do is access systems on the tailnet, without exposing those servers to the Internet. For the self-hoster with friends, this is really really useful.

Do I think this is a thing that more people than you think are doing? Given that you're questioning if it happens at all, I'd say yes.

Do I think this is at all common or normal? Absolutely not. My friends and their friends are very technical compared to the general population, so it's not surprising that something "weird" like this would be overrepresented, but even then it's not commonplace to share with friends. You really need some tight-knit bonds in order for it to work. Bonds that many people don't have a ton of.

I should mention though, it's not just "bad" websites. A lot of websites geolocate, and for foreign nationals, those websites don't make content available outside the country (for whatever reason). So for a taste of streaming TV from home, a residential proxy in the home country does the trick to let them watch "local" news of home.