I don't think that counts if you either need questionable third party tools (usually also coming with ads) or extensive knowledge of the operating system to swi

I don't think that counts if you either need questionable third party tools (usually also coming with ads) or extensive knowledge of the operating system to switch of this 'misbehaviour'. My mum is not able to operate Windows without ad and in-os-spam issues. Pi-Hole is only good for what it does. You have full control (and overview) what your network is requesting and can block everything you don't need. The way I use it it takes time to operate. Like blocking most of whatever IoT devices are doing works like charm. Or whatever my smartTV was sending every other hour for no reason. It doesn't block ads that are served on the same domains as the content, obviously. (Youtube, Twitch, ...) Only the client can filter those.