All good questions, ultimately they denote of a lack of faith in Japanman.
There is just so much I haven’t thought of ffs!
Faith sounds easier.
Articulated headshells as above (or like the Thales) or, in the case of Schroder’s LT, an articulated armbase are both ways of ameliorating the effect rather than applying bias. I guess it depends on how it’s done. A conventional air bearing (or mechanical) LT arm brings it’s own problems such as the excessive mass to be moved in the lateral plane & the effect that can have on the compliant behaviour of the stylus mounting ie very different in the vertical to the horizontal. Given that stereo records are cut in both vertical & horizontal planes that’s a serious consideration.
More thoughts from Japanman
Perhaps this conversation on Straight arms should go into it’s own thread @coco clean up in isle 2?
Interesting point. Would it be worthwhile having cartridges with very different compliances in each plane, to complement the arm? Could a dedicated ‘linear tracking’ cartridge be created - obviously it’s arm specific, so would have to be led by the arm manufacturers. Not sure I know of any that have though.