That it works for all devices on your network. Even ones that don't have an etc/hosts :)

>(off-topic) What’re the advantages of pihole over /etc/hosts?

It's good for cases exactly like this - devices where you don't have control over /etc/hosts (or where you have lots of them and don't want to keep the hosts files in sync). I use it for my Samsung TV to keep them from phoning home (but still letting me use apps)

Edit: you can also set up a DoH endpoint and filter traffic while also allowing Encrypted SNI to work

> It's good for cases exactly like this - devices where you don't have control over /etc/hosts

Is the pihole a DNS server or a firewall? Sibling comments suggest it's a DNS server, but that doesn't answer this need at all -- if you don't control /etc/hosts, you don't control the device. It can do its resolution however it wants. Most obviously, it can include the domain names you don't want it to reach in its own /etc/hosts file, which you just said you didn't control.

In addition to sibling replies which point out network-wide usefulness... pihole (or any dns server) can/will return NXDOMAIN instead /etc/hosts which will only return an ip. A dns server can also be configured to match a domain and any subdomain (wildcard match) without having to specify each entry individually.

They both work similarly if you're using them to block outbound requests, but a Pi-Hole would intercept and block outbound requests for every device on the network where it's installed, whereas editing /etc/hosts would only block requests on a single device (unless that device is your router, I guess?)