I'm not sure why this exists either.

Most consumers benefit far more from improving the acoustic system (speakers, headphone, room) than the playback system.

Once you have $200 headphones or $500 speakers and $500 room treatment, you might be able to hear a difference with lossless or 24-bit audio, assuming that the source material was recorded properly and not overly processed. But until then, a fancy music player or even FLAC audio isn't going to help much.