Nope, there’s a direct correlation between the two. Buy the time the signal reaches the speakers, the stepped waveform is smoothed out to a sine wave by inductance and capacitance.
Trust me l understand how PCM works. The audio quality of digital is directly affect by the sample rate. One of the the reasons analog sounds better is the harmonics produced by interaction between frequency elements in the content. The reason nigher sample rates sounds better is it picks up more of these. So a higher sample rate is not “wasted” as you phrased it. It does not take an audiophile rig to hear it. Even in the car if you pay the extra for higher quality streaming you can hear the difference if you “A-B” it.