I'll add my opinion. This is an interesting discussion given that it is being conducted among a community of people who generally come here to scrutinize the technical performance of audio products, and who value 'audio science'.
I've had a few transformative audio experiences. One was when I heard acoustat 4x4's, or whatever the big ones are called. One was when I bought a fostex full range driver and hooked it up to the output of my little mp3 player in 2006 and listened to a 128/s mp3 of john lennon speaking into a magnetic wire demo recorder. One was when I bought, or found, a realistic or sharp linear tracking turntable, bought a grado black p-mount cartridge and listened to an ancient recording of Grieg songs. It sounded so beautiful; there was a sense of visiting another time and place, but the sound quality had identifiable qualities I really liked as well. It was colorful, expressive, dramatic. It was also noisy, faint and distant.
This inspired me to pick up an Technics SL 1210 mk2, which I still have, and collect vinyl here and there. I don't have any fancy special records, just a collection of classical, latin and pop recordings from over the years.
I was refurbishing it recently and fitted a 20 dollar AT cartridge to it just to get everything up and running (I had to completely disassemble the arm mount and relubricate the 3" diameter, hair fine vta threads.) This cartridge is garbage, but I did listen to it and although it was a harsh, I really liked some aspects of the sound. The dynamics had a really nice quality, and there was a lively lushness, a colorful density which made music really good to listen to.
At the same time, it was lacking a lot of hifi-qualities which we're used to in the digital age. The noise was noticeable on classical stuff, treble wasn't refined, reverb didn't trail off smoothly, etc.
Although the sound achieved by a perfectly 'technically correct' system can be thrilling and enveloping, there is something to be said for the process of tailoring sound to your preferences and ears. Vinyl forces us to do this since setting up the system requires qualitative choices - what turntable, what cartridge, what preamp, at the very least. Tracking force makes a big difference too. The difference between a Grado and an AT cartridge is not dissimilar to the difference between their headphones, especially at the lower end. I'd imagine when you're spending 1K+ on a cartridge, the differences become more subtle.
If you purchase an accurate state of the art stereo, what flexibility do you have with regards to sound? You might be able to use digital EQ, or maybe change the treble level of your speakers, but these adjustments are pretty limited compared to finding a phono cartridge you really like. Yes, you probably don't want more noise in your system, but introducing a little noise, or a little stereo crosstalk can make some music easier to listen to.
I design speakers for fun, and when I do that, I abide by commonly accepted technical standards. I don't like to 'shape' the sound, I make a speaker with a big, distortion free bandwidth and responsibly managed directivity, a big 'space' for recordings to live in un-impinged. I really am looking forward to getting a better TT cart and hearing what it sounds like on my latest speakers.