It depends on the dongle and the DAC inside.
For example, the Meizu HiFi Pro dongle I use sounds better than the headphone jack in my Pixel 4a.
I do know the Apple c-3.5 is the best value. It sounds balanced, has little distortion, and puts out decent power.
If you want the end-all-be-all, the Nexdrive Spectra has a very similar audio chain to the popular Quad Amp LG phones.
MS is literally back to square one its about damn time.
They’re even worse now and aggressively pressure you to use edge if it’s not the default.