That's an excellent (better than mine before imo) signature description of XR vs XRA, which largely corresponds with what I hear.
Regarding the
'less engaging and less realistic/natural' sound parts you wrote: I think that 'engaging' is mainly based on what ticks your boxes in this case. Especially when I'm listening to live recordings it sounds more realistic/natural to me, just because it is more out-of-head. But also with studio recordings, I imagine that if you would have been there during the recording and closed your eyes, the XRA would probably come closer to that experience (even on imaging) than the XR. Although the XR (like you wrote) absolutely has the edge on detail retrieval and resolution, I wouldn't call it more realistic/natural myself (but we can agree to disagree on that
)
I've tried the XRA with closed MAM today, but to my ears there still is some difference in signature. It absolutely does come closer to the XR's signature with MAM closed, but I wouldn't say that they sound exactly the same that way. But hey, maybe the carrot module (which I haven't got here to test) can pull that off.
Regarding the Paw Gold + Zeus hiss part which was mentioned before: imo it's not that bad. Sure, you can hear some hiss inbetween songs and during really silent parts, but it never ever bothered me personally. It could be a dealbreaker though if you're really focussing on...or even worse if you are highly sensitive to hiss. I can only say that I simply do enjoy that combination!