A couple of points. First sound quality. Unless you're using a multi thousand dollar PA system, you're not going to hear any difference. I point this out all the time when the subject of sound quality comes up. What are you listening through? Cheapo computer speakers? A few hundred dollar home theater system bought at Walmart? What? Good sound requires good money.

I can't speak for the OP but most on this forum are using Fender passports or other small all in one systems like Yamaha, Samson etc that sell for $500 or so. Those are strictly mediocre, hardly audiophile quality. I just did a gig at the Catalina Yacht Club using the new Bose F1 system with the subs. That system only costs five grand not including a good mixer. Sounded absolutely awesome. Maybe with a system like that an interface would make a difference.

But, consider this. On the breaks we simply plugged in an Android phone for break music. Sounded just fine and I doubt the mini jack out of a phone is any better quality that the headphone outs from a laptop, in fact I suspect the laptop is much better because now everybody is using their laptop's, Surface Pro's and other tablets for music, movies and gaming. This is why the internal DAC's have been greatly improved over the last several years.

As to the mini jack, yes they are weak but if you're smart you work that out by using gaffers tape or whatever to secure it so it doesn't move. And in that other thread, the main issue I saw is he didn't know how to clean up his laptop for live music.

I've said it so many times I should tattoo it on my head, "You have to be a computer nerd to work with digital audio". This forum tends to be 'ahem' an older crowd and some (certainly not all) older folks really don't understand this stuff too well so we try to be helpful and walk them through it.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.