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It is trivial to write a recursive resolver. It is stupid hard to write a recursive resolver that can successfully talk to all the authoritative servers on the internet.

An often overlooked function of recursive implementers and operators is they are the glue that patches around bugs in client implementations and authoritative servers.

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Why is talking to all authoritative servers so hard? As long as you cover all the cases such as CNAMES and have the IPs of the roots, you seem to be good to go.

You say "cover all the cases" like it is trivial. The RFCs only define about 60% of the behavior, with the rest left up to the implementer. As a recursive you have to deal with every difference of opinion of authoritative implementers and the bugs they might have introduced.

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