These technical workarounds may work for a little while, and are useful to some extent.

But they're not long term solutions for a government that regularly increase its surveillance powers at the expanse of privacy.

China and Russia reached a level of surveillance and repression where people may get arrested for merely using Matrix/VPN/Tor, regarless of what it's used for.

Political action is a better way to address bad politics before it reaches this point. This could include voting, activism, supporting privacy-friendly NGOs...

Waiting until the last moment and then rioting isn't the best option.