benb:
"...worth money to me"Totally agree with that. Let the spender of the money be the last word on what’s-worth-the-money.
"...upsampled to DSD or tried various filter settings that are features in the pay-for apps that I believe has a lot of potential?"I haven’t tried any of that, but I’d like to. Have you tried such modded source material on the M-100? How would you describe the output from your speakers, compared to unmodified?
"...interface and ability to dig into your music collection in Roon is worth money..."Yes that seems to be a Roon value-add that some people find worth the cost of the software.
"...the time when it was expected to pay for things related to music"I think the institutionalized expectation of ’paying for things related to music’ has in large part created an industry where hype and ’manufacturing consent’ drive music-enjoyers to spend lots of money on products of dubious objective value. Whether there’s sufficient subjective value to the beholder, well, that returns us to let-the-money-spender be the last word.