For commercial web use, I use a DNS cache just like the website creator would expect; I use a popular browser in these instances, too. Nothing out of the ordin

For commercial web use, I use a DNS cache just like the website creator would expect; I use a popular browser in these instances, too. Nothing out of the ordinary. For exactly the reason you mention. If something goes wrong I want to be able to say I am the "typical user", not an enlightened one. However, I rarely use the web for commercial purposes. Almost all use is non-commercial. I do not use a Pi-Hole. I do like dnsmasq. I prefer djbdns. I use older hardware running Net/OpenBSD as routers and newer hardware running OpenWRT. I also do not use popular graphical browsers much. I probably would not use whitelisting if I was doing all web use via a popular graphical browser. I reasonably consistent speed across all websites by using text-only browsers and tcp/http clients. Cannot really speak for other users. Everyone is different. For me, whitelisting works well.