It's really not. That was the concensus of many reviews when these things were new. I'm not (by any stretch) implying that DAC differences are 'audiophile snake oil'. There is a difference. It's just that the 'difference' is vastly overstated.

With hardware so cheap there's no reason to settle for lower quality.

It's a single "most" and a two "probably"s. That doesn't seem out of line for a reasonable estimate to me.