I'd be nervous about running a validating Eth node at home advertising my home IP address. Does anyone run one behind a VPN?

Totally. Your IP could be cross referenced in a leak to get your name/address. Also your IP will get hammered with people trying to find a vulnerability.

Zero-to-one builder in SF 🇨🇦🇺🇸

And I imagine someone sophisticated can determine pretty accurately which node is originating validator proposals/attestations. So you're saying "Hello world, I have XXX ETH sitting on a home device right here".