I am using an extension for my Browser to block unwanted sites. It's called BlockSite and exists for Firefox, but seems to be there as well for Chrome and Edge (and may be other browsers as well).
As I am using only Firefox I can only tell you how it functions in that program: excellent, for blocked sites you get a warning that the site is blocked. You even can link to another https adress if you like that should replace the unwanted site.
When using the method via the Host file, you get no warning message at all, only a browser that is telling you the adress is non-existing or not findable. I used that method before but it's not convenient because you don't know if the site is not reachable because it was blocked in the Host file or that it really does not exist (or may be you made a typing error when manually typing the adress in the https bar).
