Running libvirt without dnsmasq

Hi, we are trying to document a way for our users to run libvirt without dnsmasq to reduce attack surface on the host. We are aware that the default network uses it but plan to disable that and use our own custom configured networks instead. Uninstalling dnsmasq causes libvirt to refuse to start even if the default network is no longer running. Is this possible or is this something that needs code changes upstream?