It really roils me because you seem to be one of the most level-headed people in the Fediverse. I love running across your comments in random threads because you always have something of value to add, and you write well, to boot.
As you said yourself, it's not the blocklist that's the issue it's that it's not documented, seems somewhat intentionally hidden (including the apps claim that blocked sites are "incompatible"), and so the people deploying it aren't even aware it's there and don't have the option to disable or change it to suit their needs. It's very, very sketchy behavior on the part of the developer.