“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.”
What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death. — Fruit (κάρπος, karpos) of sin is shame and θάνατος (thanatos, "death")—existential and eschatological. The rhetorical question exposes sin's bankruptcy: it promises satisfaction but delivers only disgrace. Paul appeals to the Roman Christians' own experience: the old way led nowhere.
Church Fathers on Romans 6:21
“What fruit had ye then in those things whereof you are now ashamed?” So great was the slavery, that even the recollection of it now makes you ashamed; but if the recollection makes one ashamed, the reality would much more. And so you gained now in two ways, in having been freed from the shame; and also in having come to know the condition you were in; just as then you were injured in two ways, in doing things deserving shame, and in not even knowing to be ashamed. And this…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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