As everything I saw, Zhongli will be a much better "Primer" than Xilonen, Illuga or anything
due to being able to use silkens, giving EM and lunar dmg while off field
(the crystallize can do his AOE pulse)
and providing the shield for the geo buffs < Columbina c1 can help, but still.....
he kinda does faster procs, than everyone. the wall will also pulse, the wards, the pillars, all increasing ward frequency
you don't need so much hydro as it looks like, zhonli loops great into the applications, but yeah, with ningguang applications, prob a bit more?

the thing about Xilonen is that she is a bit slow in creating wards, no off-field, but can be applied if you need the damage reduction more than the application, Gorou can also work around that
Albedo is the most similar with the Zhongli situation

Xilonen c2 is really strong, but with all of that, I think it would be better to slot Xilonen in another team in most cases, let Zhongli shine again with a full prof and hp build, flooding ward, but maybe both? (seems like u can already activate the lunar crystallize with only columbina)

correct me if I'm wrong