I dont know what you mean by "co conspirators" and "illegal things", but my project is site for cardboard game and 99+% of userbase is from EU/NA/SA.
P.S. There are no sanctions prohibiting companies to sell hosting to me (by me I mean ordinary citizen with "toxic" passport), it is just VISA/Mastercard decision not to serve us so I dont have other means to pay.
BTC was the only way I was able to pay for hosting/domain for my non-commercial pet-project (~1,5 years of almost daily after hours development) after sanctions raised against the country I live in.
This is my anecdotal experience (and no, I don't invest in crypto), but that's enough for me to not consider cryptocurrencies "just scum".
P.S. Also I pay for VPN with it, because this is also the only way at the moment, and without it I cannot even read news I prefer.
With some practice it's very effective, fast and don't require to watch at the rope.