There are some very helpful and knowledgeable individuals on this forum. (I'm not one of them.) There is also the occasional poster who feels a need to insult others, for some reason or another. Generally, I've found that those who feel a need to insult others have a significant insecurity of their own that they should address and work through.
Your experience trumps what theoretically should happen, although perhaps if the signal sounds better with more processing, then that might mean that there is some weakness in your system, and the extra "distortion" smooths out the irregularities that you hear through the bypass. Either way, enjoy your music, and I can highly recommend upgrading components when it is feasible.