Not necessarily. Ultimately, if you're really that close to 0dbFS, a db here or there ain't gonna make a difference. Likewise, if even with gain all the way up, you're not getting much of anything, even several db won't make that much difference.
The actual important part is how much noise the thing is adding to your signal and whether/how much higher gain settings amplify that noise. If the noise just gets louder as you turn up the gain, then the gain's not really helping anyway.
To put it another way, as long as you get the bast S/N you can going in, it doesn't really matter where the meters hit. Reaper's got all the clean, flat, quiet gain you could ever need and then a whole lot more.
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