Can I bypass dpkg and read the info directly?

[slavos1]

Can I use apt show etc?

[slavos1]

Yes, I can use apt list so that I can remove any dpkg references:

$ apt list |grep git
...
xserver-xorg-video-intel/oldstable,now 2:2.99.917+git20200714-1+deb11u1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
xserver-xorg-video-qxl/oldstable,now 0.1.5+git20200331-1 amd64 [installed,automatic]
...
zytrax/oldstable 0+git20201215-1 amd64

So it has "[installed" as dpkg -l does, without the second line.