This is in line with my expectation.
The MQA 96kHz won’t activate MQA decoding because by having (I assumed) Tidal resampling it to 44.1kHz for 16/44.1 delivery destroys all MQA signalling. This does not mean you’re getting a non-MQA processed album. If it was a MQA album in the first place, by paying less or forcing the quality to be 16/44.1 it is only decreasing the quality.