But then you’d have a myriad of arguably worse problems.

It’s only a matter of time before you the same regarding microsoft. Their services always get worse as time progresses.

I’d say maybe keep at Blender, the community is huge and the tutorials endless. It’s only complicated until you learn how it works!

There’s also CAD software, like FreeCAD, LibreCAD, etc, which, unfortunately I have no experience of so I can’t tell you if they’re easier or harder to learn and use compared to Blender.

The chinese state, as most authoritarian regimes are, is first and foremost concerned with maintaining power. They do this, primarily by suppressing political opposition. In furtherance of this goal, they restrict the flow of information that could encourage political opposition in any conceivable way. That is the main reason it exists.

They do crack down on piracy when economically beneficial, as I understand it. But it’s not the purpose of the firewall and, even then, they do have means to circumvent it.