Ah, so your admission of your own expectation bias somehow reinforces your argument??
You seem to be able to cite the bias on one side & it's effects but not for the other side - it's interesting.
As you say, "Noting has changed"
If my "argument" is that expectation bias is powerful, no one is immune, and that it is much more likely to be the cause of what you're hearing than changes in code, which still delivers a bit perfect stream to the DAC, changing what comes out of the analog end of that DAC, of course it supports my position. If I believed you were vulnerable to expectation bias but I was not, it wouldn't even be a position. It would just be an attack on your personal credibility.
Tim