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.