Schiit Freya + Class A in Stereophile

It would be unrealistic to say a pair of KEF LS50 meta can compete with a pair of Wilson Sabrinas, for example.

Exactly. There is class A then there is class A. I do think that if you could get a good match with your system you could be knocking on the door of a very fine system with the Freya+ or Topping Pre90. Knowing what gear work might work with your system is half the battle. 

You need to understand what class A means. It means for the money.

Nowhere in the description for recommended components does Stereophile say classes are cost dependent. You guys are making this up. Stereophile says:

Class A
Best attainable sound for a component of its kind, almost without practical considerations; "the least musical compromise."

They only reference that some components may be a bargain for their performance level by listing dollars signs, one through 4 ($$$$) as an indicator of cost. The key is "component of its kind" meaning bookshelf speaker vs bookshelf speaker. If you have seen something different, please share your source.

Component of its kind extends to the dollar sign icon you mentioned. 
Yes, price is part of the definition. The least musical compromise for the $. 

Stereophile is very precise about explaining their process but nowhere do they mention that price is a consideration, you are making assumptions that don't exist. 

The end game will be like this: The rich gets expensive Pass, the poor gets economic Topping and both of them enjoy preamp of similar SQ. No discrimination based on the socioeconomic status in the happy music listening wonderland.

Stereophile says: "Best attainable sound for a component of its kind"...there is the rub, they don't just say best sound period. Your thought is noble but it's still good to be the King and have a large budget for audio. 

A tube preamp without duplicative/reduntant gain...

A preamp is not redundant gain. It is processing the signal and presenting it to the amplifier in a manner that could work better than a signal directly from a source that may or may not match what the amp is looking for. 

I put some CBS Hytron tubes in the input stage side and it really made the preamp a whole lot better. 

When I read the Stereophile test, the first thought I had is why they didn't roll some tubes.