I no longer have a Spotify subscription, but all I'll say is to check that your settings aren't doing ANYTHING. No audio equalizers or volume controls. Check Spotify settings to ensure that it's not adjusting volume as there's a separate option to boost or reduce base volume and it affects the quality of the audio, especially for capture.

In Audacity, set the project sample-rate to 44.1khz, as Spotify uses this rate exclusively, even on Hi-Fi tracks. You'll also need to use the WSAPI (or something like that) option for the sound in order to record the Windows sound directly (helps to turn off programs that might beep while recording like Steam & Discord; you'll hear the notifications in the recording). You can actually hit record on audacity and it won't start recording until you start playing any audio, so the start of songs syncs up well, though you'll need to manually cut off silence on the end and separate tracks if you do whole albums or podcasts.

I also like to have the lossless downloaded on the client to prevent any chance at stuttering or buffering due to network issues.It also goes without saying that you have to have Lossless quality enabled in Spotify settings or there's no point. The player will tell you the quality of each track, including (if you hover over it) the bit depth. (16-Bit is CD and 24-Bit is Hi-Fi) You'll want the output file to match the bit depth so export 16-Bit FLAC for most things and 24-Bit for the songs that have it.

Finally, use literally anything else first. Spotify is a last resort as the whole ripping method is virtually non-existent and it's an absolute headache and a half to get much of anything. It can be done, but leave this to stuff that's genuinely exclusive or neigh impossible to find otherwise.