I am surprised at different peoples criteria. Mine has been:
1: Sound Quality
2: Cost
So, for many many years I had wished my current Phono Stage had a second input. I owned ARC for decades from PH2, PH2SE, PH3… PH8… Ref 3. Finally Audio Research added a second input… the REF. I think I hooked up my old AR turntable for a couple days and unplugged it. Why did I want to plug in a second grossly inferior table?
At least for me, it is about sound quality. That is it.