Thanks for the read. I definitely agree, and that's where I was going near the end of my article / rant. People don't care if something is sponsored as long as it's what they want to read about. If you're trying to force something down a user's throat, they're not going to respond well to it. It seems like common sense, but apparently we're in the minority of the subject.
"Private Network" is often analogous with "Internal Network". They aren't lying,it's private as in it's using private IP assignment within their own infrastructure. Thus, private.
I agree with shaggy. I don't know how you would expect to have a VPN accessible only by your account's droplets for $5. A private network means an internal network. So it's just using the internal infrastructure of the data center to communicate with other droplets in the data center. It's more performant than using the external network. Usually companies' advertise a fully private account infrastructure as a "Private Cloud" or something of that nature.