PAA:
Again, I’m not sure why you think a Rishon should need to say explicitly that he means what he says literally. If the Rif quotes the lashon of Rava, what makes you think that “we can’t know what there exact position is”?
I looked up the Beis Yosef, and he does indeed bring down several different shittos. However, the words of the Aruch Hashulchan still stand.