All playback of DSD requires a low pass format in some form. Most DACs use a process that converts DSD to multi-bit PCM. The DAC has an internal low pass filter to filter out the quantization noise. Some DACs do not convert to multi-bit but those use a low pass filter directly, in a somewhat different form.
If you do DSD to PCM conversion in software, you need to use a low pass filter, much like the DAC does.
So, playing DSD requires a low pass filter. It just depends on where that filter is, in software or hardware, and what type of filter is used. In the case of bitstreaming, you are sending the DSD directly to the DAC, and the DAC does the necessary filtering.