And the conclusion was, at least for me, is that this doesn't require Pi Hole if your router software supports ad-blocking (OpenWRT, pfSense do), and that DNS-level blocking cannot replace wide-spectrum content type blocking such as in browser addons like uMatrix.
With Asus routers that can run Merlin [1], AMTM [2] is a nice little suite for adblocking.
All you need is a USB formatted to EXT4 and you're good to go.