I think maybe OP doesn’t like kiwi’s UI/UX

1. Create a free Nextdns account.
2. Add some blocklists
3. Use the private dns settings on your android to set the dns. (i think this feature is present in Android versions which are 9 and above)

Voila ! you have blocked ads without wasting your VPN slot.

As an added bonus you can also configure nextdns to block your specific phone vendor tracking as well.

If you are interested in trying different web browsers you can check out Fennec from F-droid or Brave browser. These are my go-to browsers on android.

I have not used IRC extensively. But i have used nibl.co.uk (for anime) a couple of times when I couldn’t find torrents.