VPN

From your end of things (read: just a basic user), Tor is a web browser just like Chrome or Edge, but rather than routing your traffic directly to your destination, it bounces it around through many different points "nodes" which are spread around the world. In this way, it functions kind of like a VPN in that your connection can't be attached a geographic region. Tor isn't a VPN, though.

On whether or not having a USA-based VPN is better than a non-US one for evading (possible) US Govt. censorship, logic dictates that that's the case. US-based providers are ultimately under the mercy of the US govt. and foreign ones are not.

They suggested traffic using a VPN is just as prone to being monitored as non-VPN internet use, but potentially by different parties. Is there any truth to that?

Well, the main concern with VPN users isn't so much if anyone is seeing their web traffic, but whom is. Traffic through a VPN provider's network can be seen by the provider, but they have a strong financial incentive to keep this network private. Open traffic (no VPN) can be seen directly by your ISP who has a strong financial/legal incentive to make sure you're doing the "right thing."

No worries about not being a tech person. I'm certain that someone more knowledgeable than me could come ITT and blow my simplicifactions out of the water but this is how I understand/use VPNs as a normal consumer.