I just use blocklists in Unbound without having to bother with Pi-Hole. Nothing against Pi-Hole, I just find it easier long-term to maintain fewer services.

You don't need a VPN! I host an AdguardHome instance and just expose TCP/853. I put my domain name in the Private DNS settings of my Android and I get 24/7 adblocking without the hassle and battery drain of my Wireguard VPN (which I still use to access private stuff)

I have a similar setup, but with AdGuardHome. I used Pi-Hole in the past, but AdGuardHome's UI is from this century at least. That, and the fact that with Pi-Hole it was very difficult have IPv6 working.

I have an instance on my router in my home network for covering all devices by default, and a hosted one to which I connect when outside via mobile network. Split-tunneling with only the DNS routed, so that I don't have to push all traffic through the VPN.

May be helpful for others. Fully packaged version

https://github.com/IAmStoxe/wirehole