vino, far as I can tell the Clearaudio is not only a bright cartridge, but bright everything else. Worst waste of money I ever heard, same setup you have, only I add blame to Definitive Audio. Whatever. Maybe you will like it. My bet is you will like a Grado a lot better. I know I would.
To answer your question and correct gaps posted above-
Correct VTF matters because if you look closely as you lower the cartridge you will notice the cantilever angle changes as the weight of the cartridge presses down. What you don't see is at the other end inside the cartridge, as the stylus end goes up the inside end goes down. The end where the coils are. The coils that must be centered within the magnetic field produced by the fixed magnets. So if you hear anyone saying VTF shouldn't be such and such, they have no clue what they are talking about. The manufacturer knows how much force is needed to put the coil where they want it. You set to that force. Period.
Now within that narrow range of in your case .2 g then yes you can tweak a bit by ear. Although what you will be doing mostly is trying to get the sound you want. Which you should rather be doing by buying the correct cartridge instead.
So now what are the challenges with making sure you're setting VTF accurately? Well first you zero and tare your scale by using whatever known weight it comes with. Next you check to see if when the stylus is resting on the scale it is the exact same level as when playing a record. Most scales are thicker than a record so you can't just set it on the platter or the cartridge will be too high. The arm will be high and whatever VTF you get will be different when playing a record. Only way around this is make a little stand, block of wood or whatever, so the scale is exactly at record level. Then you lower the stylus precisely to the center of the scale. Whatever reading you get you raise and lower and repeat until you are sure you are consistently in the middle of that 0.2 g range.
All this of course is assuming the overhang was done correctly. Being they were so far off on VTF that is not an assumption I would make. Trust but verify, as they say.
To answer your question and correct gaps posted above-
Correct VTF matters because if you look closely as you lower the cartridge you will notice the cantilever angle changes as the weight of the cartridge presses down. What you don't see is at the other end inside the cartridge, as the stylus end goes up the inside end goes down. The end where the coils are. The coils that must be centered within the magnetic field produced by the fixed magnets. So if you hear anyone saying VTF shouldn't be such and such, they have no clue what they are talking about. The manufacturer knows how much force is needed to put the coil where they want it. You set to that force. Period.
Now within that narrow range of in your case .2 g then yes you can tweak a bit by ear. Although what you will be doing mostly is trying to get the sound you want. Which you should rather be doing by buying the correct cartridge instead.
So now what are the challenges with making sure you're setting VTF accurately? Well first you zero and tare your scale by using whatever known weight it comes with. Next you check to see if when the stylus is resting on the scale it is the exact same level as when playing a record. Most scales are thicker than a record so you can't just set it on the platter or the cartridge will be too high. The arm will be high and whatever VTF you get will be different when playing a record. Only way around this is make a little stand, block of wood or whatever, so the scale is exactly at record level. Then you lower the stylus precisely to the center of the scale. Whatever reading you get you raise and lower and repeat until you are sure you are consistently in the middle of that 0.2 g range.
All this of course is assuming the overhang was done correctly. Being they were so far off on VTF that is not an assumption I would make. Trust but verify, as they say.