Your comment about some MQA material sounding worse than (good) non-MQA versions is not surprising in my view. First, one must always remember that aural beauty is in the ears and brain of the listener. If you prefer something then no one should gainsay it (except, perhaps, by pointing out things you might have simply missed). Second, the aim of MQA is to restore the quality of original masters. Not all masters are brilliant to all ears/brains and that is why so-called re-mastering goes on to improve how things sound. Clearly, this is a subjective matter (not least in the perceptions of the person doing the re-mastering) so you may prefer it or not. Personally, I generally prefer MQA versions, even if they seem to have a little more distortion or background noise, because my brain seems to put a lot of weight on phase coherence (what Meridian and others sometimes describe as 'timing') across the frequency range. Don't ask me why - it just does!

Many years ago (at least 60) Peter Walker of Quad often said that a very extended frequency response (above 15kHz or so) was not just unnecessary but actually a nuisance as, given the electronics of the time, it just presented you with more distortion (hence his products had good quality high frequency filters - and low frequency ones to cut rumble from turntables). As HiFi progressed this was argued to be a terrible adulteration, but to my ears he had a good point and I would use the filters where I enjoyed the resultant sound more because it sounded more like the real thing (live music!).

So I would say, don't be a slave to MQA nor to super wide frequency responses. Just choose what sounds best for you. For me, MQA is typically the greatest advance in my perceptions of reproduced sound quality that I have ever experienced - apart from the huge improvements in reducing background hiss over the years. But I would rather have a noisy master quality version with the least phase distortion than a manipulated remastering that removes some irritations at the expense of non-linear phase changes over the frequency spectrum. Many would have different preferences and, thank goodness, markets provide lots of choice to cater for varying tastes.