Does this work with a full node?

Yes. Despite what its name would suggest.

Building a dapp with a remote full node as the backend (MetaMask, INFURA)

For most of the JSONRPC calls, a dapp needs to make wait for a network call to fetch the result, which may cause some latency in the response:

• in the case of a remote full node: the dapp makes a JSONRPC call to the remote full node.
• in the case of a Light Client: the Light Client asks its peers for the result.

As such, the best development patterns which apply to Light Clients also apply to remote full nodes. Read the chapter on Light Client Development to learn more.

@parity/light.js is merely a library which regroups all these best development patterns in a simple API.