why do you think it's dumb? if it works, then it works.

How is this even possible? I thought Youtube and Reddit ads are impossible to block via a DNS filter.

Perhaps proxying through Invidious and or Redlib instances? Given that a Redlib and Invidious URL’s follow the same paths as Reddit & YouTube it’s not hard to replace https://reddit.com/r/SomeSubreddit with https://lib.nextdns.tld/r/SomeSubreddit or https://youtube.com/watch?v=SomeVideoID with https://inv.nextdns.tld/watch?v=SomeVideoID

I don't know where you found those lists, but on their site they still say it's not possible to block YT ads.

Just gave it a shot, and seems to work just fine.

I use a two pihole setup, Librewolf with an adguard plug in, and sponsor block for YouTube and it works fairly well.

As for Reddit I do not use it anymore so I do not know.

I just wish I knew why the site was down for a week. I had to use a backup DNS for a few hours and when I tried to switch back to NextDNS it actually worked.

Edit: Just had a major DNS leak. Google came right up while NextDNS was active. I guess I'm switching now. This didn't just start after election day when it was fine for a few years.