Which by extension means you wouldn’t/shouldn’t trust Apple’s OS and Browser, so iCloud Private Relay wouldn’t be a viable option for you in the first place.
iCloud Private Relay is available to those who have already shown a willingness to place some trust in Apple. If you distrust Apple enough to think they may use Private Relay to MiTM your browsing traffic, you should rethink your willingness to use an Apple provided OS and Browser.
My feeling is that the main reason to opt for something like NextDNS over something like your VPNs adblocking DNS servers is not about how effective the blocking is, if you just want to block ads and trackers either will do. The reasons I prefer NextDNS is (1) control/customizability, and (2) analytics. If these two things don’t matter to you very much, it’d be better and simpler to use the blocking that is built in to your VPNs DNS.
Is ProtonVPN free (with NetShield on) + Lulu + Mullvad Browser with Mullvad DNS over HTTPS Max on enough?
I think there are some misunderstandings in the above:
- I don’t believe NetShield is available on Proton’s free plan.
- I don’t believe you can use Netshield and Mullvad’s DNS over HTTPS at the same time, both are DNS, so you’d have to choose one or the other, using your VPNs DNS servers would be the better option in most contexts.