Lots of sources say to export in the FLAC format because it doesn’t have a 4 gig length limit. But the FLAC format only has 24 bits. When you export from Audacity in FLAC format, it is reducing the scale of the data from 32-bit to 24 bit.
That is why I stopped recommending saving to a FLAC file, and I now recommend saving to a W64 file.
(I moved this out of the other thread to not confuse the poor soul over there too much with deep tech opinions)
Bit depth is only relevant for dynamic range though. 16 bit already gives you about 100 dB of range to play with, which is probably more dynamic range than your input device can provide before it hits thermal noise. 24 bit is more still, and while 32bit float is practically infinite, it also doesn’t matter in the vast majority of practical applications. It is handy as a format that can’t clip during processing though.
Recommending W64 to beginners is, hm, unwise, given that Audacity’s UI doesn’t actually expose that. I’d recommend wavpack instead, which, like FLAC, compresses the file but unlike FLAC still preserves 32bit.