But damping of the mechanism (cantilever and suspension) is a different matter, and its pretty safe to conclude that if it is damped, high frequencies will be attenuated.
Ok, so if by tracking problems at HF you mean attenuated HF then I agree. But this behavior applies to any damping, also purely mechanical, not only to electromagnetic. The simplest damping is a force proportional to velocity of the cantilever movement. For periodic movements this means proportional to the frequency, so the damping force is increasing with the frequency of the played groove. Electromagnetic damping is just an example of this type of force. And this is what anyone who has ever played with loading hears - lower R = less HF, more pronounced LF. The question is so what if at the end you can reach a natural balance? If you cannot, sth is wrong or substandard.
But I’m not sure how important this is. If the cartridge is properly set up in the arm and the arm is able to track the cartridge correctly, **and** if the phono preamp is unresponsive to RFI and is also inherently stable, then IME the stock 47K load has yielded the best results. I do think its an interesting topic though and think it bears more research.
Again, I think this the last sentence is more of a personal preference than any rule. I do not see anything bad in designing a cart in a such a way that it relies on a certain load resistance to help mechanically damping the cantilever.
