> Root your damn phone!
I did for many years, and finally gave up. With recent Androids, life in the rooted world is much more difficult:
Netflix automatically drops to a lower quality tier.
Many apps now just refuse to work on a rooted phone.
But the worst thing: If I want to update the ROM to get the latest security benefits, I have to wipe my data.
Surprised you didn't mention something like PiHole.
PiHole is fine, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of it personally because:
It's far easier to just install uBlock and tell my wife, if something breaks, just click the red shield icon, then click the giant power button.