THIS:
I used to be on the equipment ferris wheel, going around and around and around. Maybe equipment roulette is more fitting? This DAC, that DAC, this cartridge, that cartridge, amps, etc. Never quite happy.
Once I learned all the nuances of speakers in a room, got appropriate speakers, subs, and fixed my room, then I finally got off the equipment merry go round. All those changes I thought I was making, that never seemed to quite do it, were not doing anything. I have easily spend over $20K on DACs over the last decade. Now every DAC in my main system sounds good.
Maybe I am the man out in this discussion, but I would rather be happy and confident in my system than yearn for yet another lateral change.
Because of my journey, like the op, I question the value of expensive DACs. They may be different but different is not better, it is different. Maybe that works for you, maybe it does not. It is working for some people here, but I wonder what are they putting a bandaid over.
(and definitely not this, which has never been glibly true, and could be argued is actually the opposite of true when it comes to 'the nature of advancement'): "Low cost DACs will sound like low end DACs and high end DACs will continue to sound way better. It is the nature of advancement."
