Well its certainly not if your analog audio path is half decent.
I have some old Adat AI3 coverters - 24bit 44.1/48 8 chan. They sound fine, steer away from in the computer DAs.
I did some A/B tests after reading your post just to re-assure myself.
I could audition my analog summed mix against a digital summed mix with the same overal level at the output.
In the digital summed mix:
Only the loudest sound at any time is well defined.
Background level sounds lost some 3d position.
Hi hats were slightly stiff or brittle.
The kick was 2D, in that the empasis was on the 500hz to 1Khz.
The bass line was there but it masked most other detailed synth lines.
In the analog summed mix:
95% of the instrument levels and frequency balance was identical to the digitaly summed mix. The other 5% is where the good stuff happens.
Like the Bass and Kik can exist in the same frequency and both still be heard.
The lower bass (SUB 100hz) had organic power and space.
The tails of reverbs and delays stayed in focus, not smeared or lost.
Hi hats and other highs (7Kz to 20Khz) took less toll on the ears.
Nice lower level sounds stayed nice and could offer nice color even with a monster bass infront of them.
Think about all the DIGITALY compromised frequencies (say any wave shape you want to represent over 5Khz, in a 44.1/48khz mix) along with DIGITALY compromised loudness information (does anyone remember 8bit sound? what about 12bit?). Then get channels and channels of information you want to represent and make a mathematical picture of them and send it to just one DA.
The hidden benifit is that each sub group or sound you send to a DA sub mix bus can be louder (before clipping digitally) so you get a bit more dimension in each and every track.
Anyway the only way to believe is to prove it to yourself.
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