I use SpamBlocker for filtering (available on F-Droid) to block calls, and with at least newish Samsung there is an option to hide blocked calls in the menu of the phone app.

I've got it configured to block on a country basis, with previous calls and contacts as a whitelist - that works for me.

I found a good solution for that - just remove the "phone" app from the home screen.

Yeah… I’m an old. I still make and receive phone calls pretty regularly.

I do too. You don't need to have the phone app on your home screen to do either of those.