I opted for just a DAC for reasons mentioned above.
What hadn’t seen mentioned is that I basically hook up my iPad via USB into the DAC. This way my iOS Tidal app is always up to date, works well and I get MQA level audio or up to 24 bit/192 kHz (effectively achieving same result).
and I can also easily switch between other music apps (Apple Music w lossless, Spotify, etc).