Spent too long on this, here is what I came up with:
let lookup_IPs_json = parse_json(to_string(lookup("DNS_QNAME_IP", to_string(message.QNAME))));
debug(concat("Initial json: ", to_string(lookup_IPs_json)));
let the_ips = select_jsonpath(json: lookup_IPs_json, paths: { QNAME_IP: "$['string list value']" });
debug(concat("Set to fields: ", to_string(the_ips)));
set_fields(the_ips);