Would you still pay $10k or more for a turntable not full analog front end these days ?

@grislybutter good for you, so you already know everything you need.

Now, you are changing this to "sounds different". In this case you have to consider the entire chain.

@mikhailark No! My only point from the start was refuting your assertion that there’s no benefit to spending more than $2k on a streamer. That’s just absurd. Period.

I don't understand the controversy. Once the stream is picked up by the end device, it still has to traverse the output stage of the streamer in the home system.  There is where one streamer can sound better than or surely different from another streamer.  What's the problem?

@lewm isn't the cable from the streamer deliver the stream to the DAC? like 1s and 0s? 

"My point is simply that more expensive streamers can and do sound much better than a $2k streamer"
Th cost of an item does not mean it sounds better. However Aurender, Grimm, etc certainly sound far better than an el cheapo streamer. Just listen.