That's a long way of saying that, much of the time, it isn't lossless. 3 bits of the 16-bit encoded file are not lossless -- it's in the patent.
Anyhow: INXS. I went and had a listen to the HIFI vs. Master of Never Tear Us Apart and the MQA has a major change in pitch. This seems to be the major confusion: People are hearing a difference, but are confusing a fundamental change in the actual recording with the fact that it is encoded as MQA. They could re-master it and output it as a regular, non-MQA track and we'd get almost all the sonic benefits.
Anyhow: INXS. I went and had a listen to the HIFI vs. Master of Never Tear Us Apart and the MQA has a major change in pitch. This seems to be the major confusion: People are hearing a difference, but are confusing a fundamental change in the actual recording with the fact that it is encoded as MQA. They could re-master it and output it as a regular, non-MQA track and we'd get almost all the sonic benefits.