Should people with no turntable or reel to reel be considered audiophiles?

NO....

Engine as close to the middle of the car as possible. Center weight = well  balanced=better handling. Not in the front. Weight over the power wheels.
As far as the tonearm counterweight, maybe it helps with some mismatched arm/table combos, but if it’s good enough for Roy Gandy, it’s good enough for me. Plus it could mess up the fit of the dust cover, since it is not designed specifically for any arm. Tweak away....

Tweak #1

lose the dust cover

Unless it’s a SOTA and even then....

Dust cover is off when record is playing. Check out my table-Rega P8. Roy Gandy designed it after a cost no object limited edition, Naiad (might be misspelled). They only made a handful, sold to people who knew Roy so they wouldn’t be glommed up by collectors who would triple the price(or more) and never play them.

You can’t play a record with the dust cover on. Easy to put it back when not using it to keep the dust off the table. He is a genius-I trust what he puts on his 2nd best table.
Best part of the table is the arm. Simple design with superb execution. Not an adventure to cue like arms on other tables that look like they belong in a physics lab. They look cool, but how do they sound?