3rd Party DNS Server

I apologize as I know this is a subject discussed and debated to death, but I was curious about 2 things just as I'm a n00b and try as I will still only partially grasp the nuts and bolts of how FWG works.

Question 1: Currently have a adguard home running on a pi in it's own vlan....In doing so and turning off DNS booster on a large portion of my devices am I defeating the security purposes of having the FWG by not utilizizng DNS features? To what degree is active protect/other benefits tied to the booster?

some context: The main reason I run the AGH is really more out of tinkering and educational curiosity and plus i like to "see how the sausage is made" in terms of whats being blocked why etc. Additionally, I use it over FWG DNS services as I can use wildcards for naming my home toys and I"m lazy.

Question 2: Would it make sense or even be helpful if I were to keep the ADG and point it at the FWG as the upstream? I realize i have probably over-complicated my network but it's all in service of science!!! (or my learning of science) Would appreciate any insight into the ramifications/relief to know i'm just over thinking it!

Last note: I was running AGH and for a second PI-hole on the gold in docker but stopped as it seemed perhaps more prudent to just allow the FWG be a FWG especially as  I don't want to break something while poking around .

Thanks!