This year I celebrate my 50th anniversary of working with XLR connectors, also marking my transition from college hifi guy to professional audio. In every imaginable parameter the XLR is superior to the RCA connector.
But that's not the question. Is it audibly superior at lengths less than 5 meters? The answer is no. At longer lengths, over 10 meters, the answer is unquestionably yes. True balanced connections have much better common mode noise rejection, but until that reaches a meaningful threshold, who cares?
If you choose to locate your power amps a couple feet from your speakers, and the preamp a 30ft cable run away, balanced - true balanced, not 'Pin 2' balanced (which is actually just unbalanced wired with XLRs) - works much better.
Using XLRs for nearby peripheral interconnects is fine, but know that in the context of hifi, it's just a vanity move. In an RFI dense studio, maybe not so much.
Just calling it as I see it.