First of all I am a moderate MQA proponent, not a hater, although with enough insight to also understand some of the counterarguments. So please be careful how you peg me.
What you say is indeed how it USED to be. But the latest slate of Warner MQAs are all 16/44, NOT 24/44. You're not going to get 24 bits from them, regardless of your DAC.
And the reason for my post is that I would prefer a plain RedBook 16/44 over a MQA 16/44 -- where the MQA sacrifices some resolution to store additional samples. That's acceptable in a 24-bit file, but less so in a 16-bit file.
According to my USB DAC (Gustard A18 MkII) those Warner MQAs contain no additional samples either, i.e. they "unfold" to 44.1Khz. So I have to wonder what was done to them to earn the MQA badge?
Other MQA tracks on Tidal (such as the Everest Records I mentioned) are 24/48 and unfold to 24/192. They sound great, and I absolutely don't hate them