Let me try to clear a few points.
Comparing Daphile to HQPlayer is just plain wrong. Daphile is an OS, a patched distribution of Gentoo with upsampling capability based on SoX, to which Måns developed a DSD extension (freely available).
It is possible to compare HQPlayer's modulators to Måns' - objectively. I did it. You can find the published results
here (for Måns' test, go towards the end). Måns modulator is fine, although rather basic and coarse. I may add - HQPlayer has nothing to worry about it! It's a better modulator and a much more flexible program.
It is possible to use Roon+HQPlayer in a headless system, that is similar to Daphile, with an external interface: one has to use Roon Core + HQPlayer Embedded. It works very well. Various Linux distributions can be employed.
On this matter, we at NextrHardware have produced a better, custom version of Gentoo that can work with both Roon and HQPE, either as server or NAA.
I am glad that the dozen or so Mike's clients are happy with Daphile and his devices, but I would avoid generalizations based on subjective opinions. I am sure there are as many, but probably more, opposite views on "the other side". Personally, I know MANY of them.
Daphile is a good "boxed in" system. I am very aware of it and I often suggest it to users. As a matter of fact, we at NextHardware have people who develop tools employed inside Daphile. Its strength, however, is also is weakness: although developed on open source programs, it's closed. There is little flexibility, unless developer decides to add a particular feature (for example, a particular wi-fi receiver).
One last note: perhaps after the summer a plug-in will be developed for Logitech Media Server (the server side used by Daphile) to work in conjunction with HQPlayer.