If you are a music lover, it takes years to choose a cartridge because of the many different personalities of cartridges.
Most of the comments seem to indicate there is some kind of absolute value that can be attributed to cartridges that can be measured on an objective scale.
I wouldn't take anyone's word for "their best cartridge"; they are assuming they're ears like my music, or my ears like they're music, or what kind of music you like doesn't matter. However, there is a method of getting good advice from professional reviewers.
Let's say you are interested in "Koetsu Urishi"; the very first thing you do is find reviews of this cartridge where your favorite music is reviewed.
https://www.cnet.com/news/insanely-great-phono-cartridge-for-well-heeled-audiophiles/Based on this review, I would buy this cartridge today if it was in my price range; that's because of the music that was reviewed. Naturally I know a whole lot more than that about Koetsu, but when my favorite music is reviewed, I'm positively sure that I'm at the end of the line in my selection. Of course this is after you have taken into consideration all of the other factors necessary.