Honestly, the biggest reason to use a Mac over anything else may well be Little Snitch. I could probably configure Linux not to phone home on my own, and almost certainly couldn't do so with Windows, but on a Mac with Little Snitch? I know I'm covered.
I was doing it with ZoneAlarm on Windows years before Little Snitch even existed, as far as I can tell. If you want to use a Mac, use a Mac, but it doesn't seem sensible to claim it's superior to other platforms when you don't know about them.
I didn’t, I just said I probably couldn’t do so with Windows. If you feel comfortable with ZoneAlarm, then great, but I personally am yet to be convinced that it’s even possible to really lock down a non-Unix (or Unix-like) system. In any case, I’m quite certain I couldn’t do it, and I don’t have nearly enough confidence in my understanding of how Windows network security works (does anyone really?) to say whether any given application works or not.
But if it works for you, then great. All I know is that Little Snitch does the job easily and effectively, and I don’t trust anything else to work as easily or reliably.
You did make that claim, but whatever: "Honestly, the biggest reason to use a Mac over anything else may well be Little Snitch."
You can definitely do this with Safing Portmaster[1].
[1]: https://safing.io
What makes you think that? Even just editing the HOSTS file will get you there.
And yes, I have seen (and blocked) applications that have made requests to 8.8.8.8 when I didn't have my system DNS server set to that. I would have had no idea if not for Little Snitch alerting me.
If that's a problem for you, then that's clearly a you-problem, not an issue with the community.