Is Google DNS a Myth?

Google public DNS resolving services on IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 was sold as being a faster solution for users, since caching could occur on a massive scale, but is it just a statistics gathering exercise for Google?

Using NameBench (http://code.google.com/p/namebench/), and running the test, it looks as if Google DNS is actually slower than local services, and popular global ones:

Mean Response Duration

Fastest Individual Response Duration

Response Distribution Chart (First 200ms)

Response Distribution Chart (Full)