No substitute for listening. But I have to say I have bought all my carts 'blind'.
OP is correct. Too many to listen to and dealers rightly don't like lending carts as once opened resale value slides right off the scale.
I have ART1000, Ortofons Anna, A90 and most recently Verismo, plus various top-end van den Huls. Anna is lush, A90 pure and analytical, Verismo in between, tending towards A90 but quite a large improvement. Don't write off the van den Huls. They are a bit cheaper than other high-end and particularly low-cost to re-tip and overhaul.
@larryi yes the ART1000 is a really accurate cart, perhaps because of its unique suspension system that doesn't rely on the ubiquitous polymer grommet that can harden and degrade surprisingly fast. But the Ortofons are emphatically NOT warm, I's surprised you find that and in any case that's a big generalisation on a company that makes dozens of models.
Don't forget that your choice of phono amp can vary the sound of a cart very significantly. Unfortunately just another black hole because it's extremely difficult to try each cart with multiple choices of amp. In my limited experience each cart definitely has a marriage made in heaven with one particular amp. I last upgraded from an AR Phono 2. I listened at home over three weeks to three contenders in the $15,000 range with my three top carts. Very easy to switch carts on my Simon Yorke Aeroarm, an air bearing design where multiple carriages can be swapped in a couple of minutes, each holding a pre-aligned cart. My choice overall was van den Hul The Grail SB that perhaps tends towards the accurate and analytical but certainly can play music.
