I'd agree vinyl is not Hi-Res, it has a dynamic range of maybe 60dB (so kind of 'equivalent' to just under 10-bits), channel separation is poorer. I remember reading an article somewhere by the late great Peter Walker of Quad who said LPs gave 1%-3% distortion (I might be wrong, memory is not as reliable as having the article!) and would design his amps to give low distortion, and a 20Hz-20kHz frequency range as flat as possible.
However, by sampling at 96kHz the anti-alias low-pass filter can have a gentler roll-off when reducing the signal level down to below the LSB (Least Significant Bit of the ADC) at the Nyquist frequency (at 96kHz sampling this will be 48kHz) which a lot of people prefer (the number of people who hate brick-walled frequency responses), and the more samples there are the 'easier' the job of the reconstruction low-pass filter after the output DAC - the 'reason' a lot of player/amplifiers interpolate up in sample frequency, plus undoubtedly a dollop of marketing as well. In terms of Hi-res I'm not particularly worried by the spectrum on the LP as I suspect my hearing isn't that brilliant over 15kHz, quite possibly 12kHz, but I hate distortion. A signal which clips the input of an ADC (regardless of bit depth or sample rate) sounds horrendous, worse than a heavily clipped analogue signal to my ears. Digitising to a bit depth of 24-bits means the lower level signals will be more accurately reproduced. Which is why I've been recording my vinyl and reel-to-reel tapes at 24-bit/96kHz, I 'pre-record' to check levels and adjust to give 3dB-6dB headroom to maximise the number of bits used (whereas in the analogue world I'd have taped with 6dB-12dB of headroom to minimise the distortion v noise). The number of bits is more important than the 96kHz sample rate. So 'hopefully' the end result is as bad or as good as the source LP.
