Using VPN For Pre-load or Unpack Games Is Safe ?

Do it, I did it too.
But bear in mind, if you'll turn off the VPN, the game will start without Steam knowing, so it won't log time, you'll be seen online, not in-game. At least the Steam overlay is working

You will be in breach of the Steam subscriber agreement. So it's not allowed according to steam, I don't know how safe or un safe it is though.

There's also a chance that the game will only run with a continuous VPN active. Otherwise the game will lock if you're outside the required country.

This is true for Skyrim.

I think that you could do it.
BUT! What I would definitely not do is use VPN to buy games for cheaper price. That will most probably get you banned.

Just wait two days or whatever, its not the end of the world as we know it

Just don't do it. Just wait until you can play it.

Is that so hard?

Friends of me have done this since the beginning of mankind and they are still here with no single word from Valve. All you have to do is start it from the folder to evade the auto-locking mechanism. If a patch is released after you unlocked it it will automatically be locked again (pre-load stage because you load encrypted data). I dont know of ANYONE that was banned for this (trust me I searched for months every time I was about to unlock a game early and not a single ban/topic was found) but I DONT KNOW if it changed with the latest SSA update because they apparently added something to the proxy/VPN usage part (too lazy to read).

Use Vpn, Loose your Steam account , GG
maybe read the new eula?

I've contacted Steam Support regarding usage of VPN....they only reply "Yes, you are allowed to use VPN to play your games".
VPN is not fully restricted with Steam, you just must not use it to buy games in regional price or bypassing regional restriction. As for activating games, I just want to play safe. I will turn off my VPN to activate games. Better safe than sorry.

I didn't understand this sentience [I will turn off my VPN to activate games. Better safe than sorry.]

If you use VPN to bypass release dates or content available to your country, you could be banned.