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Justin Ulysses Morse wrote:

While it's true that the additional bits tack your extended
resolution onto "the bottom" of the dynamic range, it clearly
increases the resolution at all levels. You can have a -100dB
component to a -1dB signal, and you still want to hear it.

Is the ear even capable of hearing the -100 component against the much
louder -1? I thought masking prevented this.

The threshold of reliable perception of spurious signals and noise is on the
order of from -60 to -70 dB when the music has reasonably sustained peaks at
0 dB.

This is one reason why it's fair to say that the practical benefits of
going past 16 bits are non-existent at high levels.