There should be a difference in a sense that “Non MQA” outputs plain PCM in 24/88 or 24/96, and the “MQA renderer” outputs a stream that includes coding that is recognised by the renderer and enables further processing.
The Auto-detect is the option that enables automatic detection of the level MQA supported by the DAC, and Audirvana adapts accordingly.
I’m not surprised with your finding that with Dragonfly you don’t notice any tangible difference. It’s quite low end device and it’s difficult to notice such subtle difference.
Or, if you’re in the other camp that does not believe in MQA, you might come to a conclusion that you can’t notice any difference because MQA doesn’t do anything.
Either way, I would actually like to experience MQA on a more high end system. Just out of personal curiosity.