Ya, the browser is outdated, no argument there. But there is a workable hosts-based blocking app in chum/testing, see this thread for more info. Because it’s still in testing at Chum, it’s not very visible, but I’d say it’s working well enough for daily driving now. Hopefully the author will get the time to get it into not-testing in the near future so it’ll be more discoverable.
BTW, reading your post, I realized that I’ve never used an emoji, and am not actually sure how I would if I wanted to . . .