I2s and Ethernet inputs on the better dacs are superior sounding compared to the other inputs, even if you include all the hacks/tweaks that people apply to some of those protocols.
I would take an fpga based dac over a pure hardware dac for many reasons and I have. I got new firmware every 6 months that improved the sq for free. I also got new firmware that doubled the dsd up sampling as well as implementing MQA, again for free.
I have friends that have dacs costing 5 digits that have to pay thousands to upgrade for MQA and these dacs can’t improve their sq so they become out of date.