I've had the same PiHole rule (for years!) which blocks all the text-splash-over-ads... but it becomes very cat and mouse if you want to block the pre-roll video ads (any rule that initial works... won't for very long).

Instead, use yout-ube.com [insert a hyphen into any URL] and ALL ads disappear.

Short answer : no.

What’s the long answer? Ads are obfuscated across the video stream and served as blobs?

Long answer: also no

give me something c’mon what’s the secret sauce?

Ads are using the same servers as content. So you can't block one without blocking the others with dns only.