I know this is a case of using the wrong tool for the job, but about once every 3 months or so, I find myself using dig to troubleshoot an issue, only to find out I had a hosts file entry and that's why it was/wasn't working.

I've been trying to force myself to use curl --resolve rather than using hosts file entries (where it's suitable) but for some reason I just can't seem to force myself to get into the habit of getent vs dig.

What would save me wasted time is an asterisk next to an entry or a reminder at the bottom of the output (or in stderr) which indicates that there is a hosts file entry which matches, but it was "ignored" (and even what it's value is).

I understand if it's not something you want to support, but it's definitely a pain point for myself and quite a few ops people I've shoulder surfed over the years.