Does removing anti-skating really improve sound?

lewm

... The skating force is generated by the friction of the stylus in the groove ...

This is mistaken. While stylus shape can influence skating force, the actual cause of the force is the pickup arm offset. That's why true linear tracking arms have no skating force. There are also a few pivoted arms that have no offset; they also have no skating force.

Cleeds, with no friction of the stylus in the groove, there is no skating force. Head shell offset angle is one cause of lack of tangency to the groove that from a vector force point of view gives rise to the force that pulls the stylus tip toward the spindle. However without friction headshell offset wouldn’t make one single bit of difference, and there would be no skating force. That is the genesis of my remark. And by the way, headshell offset angle is not the only cause of the skating force as far as the geometry goes. Skating force is further augmented by lack of tangency to the groove wall at any point on the LP surface that is not on the two null points of a typical alignment algorithm. Only at those two null points is headshell offset angle the only cause of the skating force. Everywhere else on the LP surface the two geometrical errors that result in lack of tangency are combined.

In addition, you are so so wrong about tone arms that have no head shell offset angle.

 There is a lot of wrong information and subjective opinion in the above comments. I hope the OP can sort it out. I would advise the OP to talk to a person that knows this subject, or to do some Internet research looking for the comments of knowledgeable people. 

LIFE is too short...

and there are many albums to listen to.

@tubelvr1, my experience dovetails yours. No AS results in a more open sound. By contrast, AS brings greater focus and more stable L to R image. It also enhances the bass somewhat. Pick your poison. The thread in your arm will also dampen its movement and resonances. Over the years I have run my tonearms (VPI, Sumiko The Arm, Grace 840FB, Lustre GST 801) without AS, without harm to my styli or records. Note that these tonearms have different AS mechanism, yet the result was the same. YMMV.

This is mistaken. While stylus shape can influence skating force, the actual cause of the force is the pickup arm offset. That's why true linear tracking arms have no skating force. There are also a few pivoted arms that have no offset; they also have no skating force.

As a matter of fact cleeds this is mistaken. Tangential tracking arms have no skating force because they are tangential. They have zero overhang.

Your true linear tracking arm will skate the minute you set it up with overhang.