Pretty sure that's the case. While risk of buying a relabled 040 is moderate, all (of the 6) here run at 44MHz on the Afterburner.
Yes, it requires a fan

And that due in part to dram technology. Without fast ram installed, I've ran the AB at 50MHz. Without fast ram though, it's just numbers.
As far as 040 code compatibility goes, doubt few applications were actually compiled for the 040 itself, outside of MiNT. And those that were have the program as an addition to a distribution. The 040 sings happily along with probably 98% of existing software, and with the aid of fast ram, easily 3x that of a Stock Falcon. Granted, a 50MHz 030 is fast, but not quite

While an 030 expansion board is easier (he says in jest) to implement than an 040, think that's due to the 040 having achieved a short presence in the Atari world, with more knowledge about the 030 and bus.
The Afterburner 040 has very little logic to get it running, the largest effort was in the Took Kit Doug Little developed.
To boot, with on-board logic, the major part is taking over the bus early, as the CT does at boot in a fashion, loads TOS into ST RAM, patches incompatible 030 code (actually NOP), and does a warm boot.
It's such a simple design, to bad the code for the logic isn't available.