No, DAC means digital-to-analogue convertor. It comes after the computer. Sampling before a computer is done by an ADC.
> The signal chain is that simple.
No, the software signal chain is not simple.
> No, the software signal chain is not simple.
While the software itself might be complex, the grandparent is right: digital audio data coming out of the ADC doesn’t get transformed in the way you suggested above. There’s no secret compression, transcoding or resampling going on without the knowledge of engineers, as it would add noise and interfere with production techniques. Even things like dithering have to be added separately.
Consumer audio, even (or especially!) when things are 10x more expensive than pro products, is definitely a bit of a garbage fire.