Does /blog have to be in my URL?

You can log into your hosting provider and do a redirect, it doesn’t move any files, it just tells https://www.example.com to open https://www.example.com/blog.

Its extremely simple, like for my hosting provider i would search “Ixwebhosting FAQ Redirect” and it pops up first with specific directions on how to do the redirect, just replace Ixwebhosting with your provider. ??

I’ve always redirected from my domain registrar’s dashboard.

This might help you:
https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

Thank you, thank you for your great answers! Much appreciated and very happy to know!