VPNs and IP block exemption may or may not be useful for contributing to Commons, but contribution is not the only thing at issue here.
The purpose of Commons is to act as a media repository for (a) all Wikimedia projects and (b) the world as a whole, without cost or licensing issues. Every day, hundreds if not thousands of Commons files are used in news media, academia, and other places outside of Wikimedia projects. Commons files appear in the majority of Wikimedia articles. Therefore, free and open access to Wikimedia Commons as part of the knowledge available to all of humanity is a major objective.
It's also where we, as a community, store useful documents and files
associated with significant information about our movement, our
projects, and many other things that may affect all projects, so access to them is important, too.
I have no doubt that the Pakistani block is motivated by matters that have nothing to do with free knowledge or the Wikimedia mission. If I was a betting woman, I'd say that this may be an attempt to avoid a public uproar about blocking Wikipedia itself, but with Commons being so much less visible, it's easier to block that project and wind up with essentially the same effect.
I am aware that there are multiple language Wikipedias edited by our Pakistani editors. One possible interim solution might be ensuring that images can be uploaded directly to those Wikipedia projects, and copies of Commons images be hosted on those projects. Some Wikipedias retained their own project-specific media storage, and many of their policies, procedures and guidelines could be used as a framework for the Pakistani-languages wikis to develop their own processes. As English is one of Pakistan's official languages, it would be worthwhile to have a discussion on English Wikipedia to work on this, too. Bots located outside of Pakistan could be used to both bring images to those Wikipedias and to copy their images over to Commons for global use.
Of course, the longer-term goal is to have the block lifted entirely. What I am suggesting is a mitigation strategy only.
Risker/Anne