Both assertions are false. For simple closure, take the inclusion
Both satisfy DAG prime, but the quantifier-free formula has a witness in and none in . The same example works in the reduced language .
For quantifier elimination, the first-order sentence distinguishes these two models. Every closed group term is zero, so every atomic closed equality is true in both models. Every quantifier-free sentence, being a Boolean combination of such equalities, has the same truth value in both. The distinguishing sentence therefore has no equivalent quantifier-free sentence modulo DAG prime. Hence
Including the trivial group is exactly what makes the proposed simple closure condition fail.