Bounce in place reduces quality?

i bounced a B3 instrument track in place the other day with "protect against clipping" selected. The result sounded a lot weaker than the original track. so I bounced it again without NORMALIZING option off. The result actually introduced digital dIstotion, although the channel never passes 0db. Next, I froze the track and it sounded exactly like the original.

So here is my question:

SInce Logic processes everything at 32 bit flooding point, do I actually loose quality when bouncing instrument tracks in place?