That exactly is the reason why I keep coming back to ASR. I had my fair share in the hi-end field and was wondering why I found some pieces seem to sound worse than a cheaper one (PS Audio for example, vs Topping/SMSL), while naively thought spending more should get better performance, or at least some benefit but same performance. Turned out in a lot of cases, it's simply snake oil - fancy case that does not perform better than one used by a cheaper product, reimplementation of certain ideas that was used in the past (R2R DAC), improvement that is not improvement (external clock, not for synchronizing between equipment), cables that people claimed that sound different, etc.
It's like I pay a certain amount for a performance car that claimed to do a top speed of 200mph, or a specific 0-60 time. While I won't likely be able to use that ever especially top speed, I still would like to know if I actually paid for the performance or not.
ASR is a great place to at least put those to test, while being as objective and consistent as possible, without all those marketing buzz and subjective reviewers with flourish wording reviews.