First, uninstall CleanMyMac by following the developer's instructions. Even then it may not be completely removed. CMM is notorious on this forum for causing all sorts of problems. Anti-virus apps, cleaning/optimizer apps, and third party security software are not needed on a Mac and usually causes more problems than they solve because they interfere with the normal operation of macOS.
Second, VPNs don't provide the privacy or security you think unless you are using the VPN to connect to a business (employer's) network through a dedicated VPN appliance.
Third, the BX500 SSD you have installed is junk. Sorry, but there is no polite way of saying it. If you write to the SSD for more than about 40 seconds, then the SSD will start to slow down since the SSD's write cache has been filled. The more you write after the SSD's write cache has been filled, the slower the SSD becomes where it may only be able to transfer data at 40MB/s (yes, that is forty MB/s). Plus the SSD overheats very easily which causes thermal throttling of the SSD. The SSD can remain in this slow state for a very long time while the SSD cools and the SSD performs its maintenance functions. In addition to all that, the BX500 SSD also has an extremely high rate of failure. This is all from personal experience with these SSDs in my organization. If these SSDs did not have such a high rate of failure (usually very sudden failure), some people may find them useful if they don't write much data to them at any one time. This SSD is meant for reading data, not writing large amounts of data. The Crucial MX500 SSD does not have these issues and does not cost much more than the BX500.
The Crucial SSD also is not utilizing TRIM. I don't know why since your Samsung SSD shows TRIM is being used and I believe the BX500 supports TRIM. I thought enabling TRIM on macOS affected all third party SSDs, so that is an oddity.
You have a few apps I am not familiar, so another more knowledgeable contributor will need to chime in on those apps. More than likely uninstalling CMM will solve your problem.
