dnsmasq can read /etc/hosts, but /etc/hosts format can't do * blocking. So if you are using /etc/hosts (with dnsmasq) '--block-at-tld' wouldn't work.

Moving /etc/hosts to /etc/hosts.default is much better than the 'hosts example'. Updated it. Thanks. Still experimenting with 'dnsmasq reload' but if it works as advertised that's more general than restarting the service.