As many have stated, the design of the gear plays the biggest role in the differences heard from balanced and unbalanced. I have a fully balanced system from the streamer, the DAC which is specifically designed to perform best with an AES input being used and balanced outputs. My DAC, Pre and Amp all sound noticeably better when everything is hooked up with XLR balanced cables. But, that’s because of the design of the equipment, all the pieces in the chain were designed that way. There are plenty of high end designs that aren’t designed to be fully and truly balanced, those pieces can sound better than balanced equipment.
I have heard some manufactures downplay or state unbalanced implementation is as good or better. Primaluna, Kevin Deal states this in some of his famous video reviews. I think the general rule of thumb is if your equipment is designed to perform at its best using balanced input / outputs, you should listen to the manufactures and plan accordingly. If they aren’t or specific pieces of gear in your chain aren’t, you shouldn’t worry about going unbalanced or feel like you are missing out.
Synergy is real, it is a good idea to try and match up equipment that maximizes the design of other pieces of gear in the chain.