It's been a long time since my DSP classes at uni, but I don't think this is true. 44.1kHz sampling is enough to reproduce up to 22.05kHz sound accurately without aliasing. Unless there is another type of distortion you might be picking up. This stuff is pretty far out of my realm these days.
It's true for a triangle wave and a square wave, depending on if the output has a reconstruction filter doing linear interpolations between samples. You cannot accurately sample a 22.05 kHz sine wave (or any other "complex" waveform) with a 44.1 kHz sample rate.
You're incorrect. A 44.1kHz sample rate can recreate a 22.05kHz sine wave. Your mental model for a digital signal isn't correct. It's not making stair steps nor is it making triangular waves.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyquist_frequency