Tonearms without anti-skate, damage to records?

I have read Peter Lederman's comments on AS and stylus inspections he has done and also understand that skating force is real.   So I go with a little goes a long way.   I typically use around 1/3 of the tracking force for AS force setting.   It does seem that I can hear when it is right.  

I use a vinyl with no groove, and check if the tone arm do not move, and stay at its place, and the beginning, centre and end of that no-groove vinyle.  Another trick is that your cartridge at the very end of grooves (of a normal vinyle), the arm should move slowly to the centre to exit.

Has anyone performed Peter Ledermann's recommended AS method (set to permit slow centripetal progress on smooth vinyl) and compared the resulting AS force to standard recommendations? My experience with doing it on two or three cartridges is that it comes out to about half of the VTF (though how much VTF affects skating force on smooth vinyl isn't obvious to me: presumably VTF acts through force on angled groove walls).

One thing I am pretty sure of is that Decca cartridges sound their best with little to no AS set, which perhaps isn't surprising as their armature, triangular in shape in the horizontal plane, is relatively resistant to sideways movement. That's probably something I should explore further in a Decca forum.

dogberry, How do you know that you are setting AS to "half of VTF"? You can know the VTF in grams very precisely, but how do you know the AS force at the headshell, where the skating force is manifested? For me, that is where we are blinded unless Mijostyn will loan us his home made tool or we buy the Wally version.

True, all I can do is twiddle the dial as made and calibrated by SME, or the slider in the case of Rega. I use two arms from each, and setting them up this way conforms to PL’s method.

Going by sound alone, I’d say that this setting or even less is the best. It’s a night and day difference for the Decca, which comes to life with little or no AS force. But as always, I’m judging on sound quality alone, as having but one ear, I don’t do stereo, imaging, soundstaging and other (to me) imaginary concepts.