But a remote resolver, such as the ones on the list, is not used to determine whether an item is contained in a set (0.0.0.0) but rather to retrieve the current IP of that domain.

The way Pi-Hole is used is to first determine whether a DNS should be blocked and only if it's not in that set, forward it to a remote resolver. I'd think the local resolver should be at least an order of magnitude less than the remote to justify it.

yeah but it doesn’t replace the remote resolver, in most setups PiHole is another layer on top of the remote resolver

my remote resolver roundtrips in 6ms. this project is a joke