Discerning a difference between streamers is difficult...only me or common for all?

Although I've posted this before, this is an apt thread for it. I don't really stream except playing my downloads from my computer and Apple Music on the computer. I have an ifi pro idsd dac I got used and added an Iris DDC (though I'm selling the Iris to upgrade to a Hermes). 

I got a T+A Dac 200 in trade for an integrated amp I was trying to sell and then added the Aurender N200 streamer after reading all the comments about how good streamers and the Aurender were. 

I was able to set up both systems to quickly A/B them because I agree and know that audio memory is very short. So I could almost immediately switch between the 2 systems. 

The Aurender/T+A set up had slightly a slightly larger soundstage and a bit of a digital glare. This is a system that was essentially $12k more expensive than my usual system. I switched back and forth numerous times and could barely hear any differences other than what was mentioned above. I sold both the Aurender and the T+A taking a bit of a bath but regaining most of my ill-spent funds. 

The Iris DDC added much more to my system than the Aurender or T+A. I am going to try out a PS Audio Directstream Mk1 that has been slightly upgraded to see if it is better than the ifi plus I can try an I2s connection to see if that is significant. The Iris had to go only because it's I2s connection is not compatible with the Directstream thus the reason for the Hermes which can adjust the pin setting and the Iris can't. 

So right now, you can say I am a streamer skeptic. Plus I didn't hear any added benefits with using Qobuz or Tidal which I did a trial of each. 

I took a less financially “lossy” route. 
I found a used Lumin D2, and have been quite happy since. 

I bought a blue sound Device and for the price it was very good but on the cheap side. I bought a chord tt2 dac which was pretty good and had a lot of pretty lights on top.  I then bought a lumin x1 which is a combined streamer/dac.  I thought it was amazing. It made 70s recorded Music actually sound pretty good. And it gets a lot of great feedback from others.

I hate all the connectivity that's involved with a hi-fi system while also really liking separates.  In the case of a streamer I'd liked the idea about the dac being integrated because the wiring and connections are probably done very well internally and I think they are in this case, the chips used were quite good and were wired very well which is really important.

Now I don't have to torment myself with dac interconnects and need to consider a new separate dac all the time.  And there are so many to pick from.

And it has a separate power box which is a good thing.  And it's really aerodynamic which is really cool too.

I still have my blue sound sitting in a box and the chord dac is also sitting in a box. Fortunately they're not very big to store away.  

I bought a blue sound Device and for the price it was very good but on the cheap side. I bought a chord tt2 dac which was pretty good and had a lot of pretty lights on top.  I then bought a lumin x1 which is a combined streamer/dac.  I thought it was amazing. It made 70s recorded Music actually sound pretty good. And it gets a lot of great feedback from others.

I hate all the connectivity that's involved with a hi-fi system while also really liking separates.  In the case of a streamer I liked the idea about the dac being integrated because the wiring and connections are probably done very well internally and I think they are in this case, the chips used were quite good and were wired very well which is really important.

Now I don't have to torment myself with dac interconnects and need to consider a new separate dac all the time.  And there are so many to pick from.

And x1 has a separate power box which is a good thing.  And it's really aerodynamic which is really cool too.

I still have my blue sound sitting in a box and the chord dac is also sitting in a box. Fortunately they're not very big to store away.  

I have no wish to add to the OP’s confusion, and I agree with many of the commenters who feel that past a certain level, streamers can vary in whatever added value they bring to a system. But we also shouldn’t overlook the differences in software. All these devices require some sort of operating system for connectivity, and most, if not all of them, are based on various versions of Linux. And within Linux there are a number of different playback and connectivity formats, among threm MPD, Minimserver, BubbleUPnP, Squeezelite, etc. All of these offer somewhat different sonic presentations. One reason I like my Pi2AES so much is that I can choose my own OS and player software. While a lot of these are free, like Ropiee, Moode or Volumio, I’m happy to pay extra for a system like Gentooplayer, which allows a wide choice of different "players" and a lot of tweaks and extras, like the Diretta ethernet protocol. Now there’s an extra layer or two of "tuneability." This isn’t for everyone, obviously, but it is worth noting that the software provided with a streamer can have a significant impact on the sound. It might consist of a basic DLNA server, or it might incorporate something more sophisticated.