DNS and all the overall infra should do whatever the owner of the infra want it to do.
If i as the network admin don't want you to access some site i will block it, and blocking it at DNS level is one of the ways i have to achieve this and if i catch you trying to circumvent it you will be booted from my network in no time.
That is what local DNS servers are for and what solutions like Pi-Hole and AdGuard Home were desinged to accomplish..
There are many legitimate user cases that require you to mess with DNS. example, you can force google safe search in your network to all devices, google own instructions are to create a cname redirecting www.google.com to safesearch.google.com at your local DNS server.
So no, block or redirecting stuff in my DNS not only is not evil, it is required in many cases.
If you are trying to do something that is being blocked in the local network either talk to the network admin and explain why you need to do that and check if he can fix it for you and if he cant\wont then go do it somewhere else..
Also, most, if not all, the large enterprises do dns level blocking, as they should.. Go try work around this and i bet you they will call you out, insist and you will be job hunting in no time..