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I believe the main benefit of "zero deck" is to help achieve effective quench meaning about .040" clearnace between a good sized area of the piston and head - this with a closed chamber head. A similar result could be achieved with a FT piston below deck and a thin head gasket or with a piston below deck with quench dome.

Its just easiest - $ and hours of labor - to do well with a zero deck piston, closed chamber head and .040 head gasket.

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It does make quench the easiest to obtain with most standard gaskets that fall around the .040 range. A Piston .020 in the hole with a .020 gasket will net the same result.

Also with Zero deck you may not need any Dome to acheive your "desired" compression. Flat tops have a slight advantage over domed pistons because of the easier/faster flame travel. IMO mike