A torrent client may need settings in the client changed, firewall rules changed, and ports open on the router. Even with all that a VPN could still have a limited connection. Some VPNs allow you control over this but I doubt free ones do

Things are changing rapidly but asynchronous upload/download speeds are not always offered by ISPs and uploading was always slower than downloading… used to be never but I’ve seen more and more ISPs offer asynchronous speeds

There are a huge number of factors that we don’t know that could account for your slower speeds

Little click on 2… 3’s binding