Macbook freezes upon waking when connected to VPN
This isn't much of an answer, but in truth, the response here is &quot;this is a known issue&quot; (and not officially acknowledged by Apple).    I admin macbooks in a 100% remote environment and this issue happens even without the inherent VPN (we use a 3rd party and our own server).  In my experience, this issue only happens to my users with models 2016 and above / touchbar macbook pros.
Also, there's a similar post... with no definite answer also.  Just wanted to point out you're definitely not alone.