>It is simplistic to state that 44.1/16bit is enough, if that is the case then any combination of recording, amplifier and speaker would suffice.
No, that doesn't follow. It just means that recording at those bit rates and sampling frequencies isn't the "bottleneck" for the sound in the system.
>But there really is a difference between a phone with a music app playing a 16bit/44.1kHz song on a medium quality headphones and a dedicated player with a good DAC chip playing a 96kHz song on a good quality headphones.
When everything you compare to is better quality then of course it sounds better. But it's not due to the 96kHz vs 44.1kHz. Nyquist-Shannon is mathematical reality.
You have to compare the same high quality headphones, the amp with the same DAC, with the same recording, being played through a high quality filter bringing everything down to 44.1kHz/16bit.