Serious distortion from Rega RP1

I've re-aligned the stylus/cartridge as it was a little off, I backed off the counterweight a bit, then the tonearm just kept wanting to move away from the center, so I added more weight, now it's slightly less weight than recommended.
I still have the tonearm wanting to move away from the center, but it's less pronounce and it's only when it's high up.

Anyhow, I think it's a little better now, but it still distorts a little especially when there's a lot happening in the song. And the overall fidelity is a little lacking, but I think that's just the nature of the OM5E; stock cartridge, so yeah...

I'm gonna order the Ortofon 2M Red soon & a digital gauge and set it all up to the T then see how I go I guess. Hopefully I get better results, but this is definitely an improvement @tablejockey; so thank you! :D

Maybe the gathering of dust on the stylus.

Have you inspected that the arm has free movement?  not binding from time to time?

@stringreen I'm sorry, could you elaborate?
@raymonda I clean it with the stylus brush every time I am about to play a different record etc.

What I meant to suggest is that you take the arm in your hand and slowly move it across an imagined record to feel if there is an area where it doesn’t feel "smooth" ....or a bit stuck, etc.,,,an arm bearing flat spot, etc.