You've run some pretty fancy MC's, but the _______ MM cartridge really impressed me

Pindac, I think the idea of a ceramic cartridge in this day and age is more akin to a screwball than to a curve ball, in baseball parlance.  This is not to say it's crazy (one definition of screwball) but that it is more esoteric than a curve ball.

Everyone always forgets Goldring. The 1042 is an amazing cartridge for the money. It is the least expensive cartridge I know of with a Gyger S stylus. My other favorite HO cartridges are outside the OP's budget. 

Soundsmith makes great sounding MI cartridges, I'm currently using the Carmen 2 nice all around sound and very ready rebuild prices.

Grado, Soundsmith, Nagaoka and London Decca are all MI. Of those, if londondecca.com don't start making cartridges again, I'd go for the Nagaoka MP-500. I haven't had anything higher than a Grado Statement 3, or a Soundsmith Sussurro MkII, but to my ears the MP-500 knocks their socks off. If the Deccas are made again, that is a step better, but a lot more expensive.

No question, the Technics EPC 100MK4, a conventional MM with super low tip mass and all the details done right. It has more bandwidth than any MC with flat bandwidth to 80 kHz and a resonance of 100 kHz. It wasn't officially imported into America but in the 80s many of the most famous mixing engineers used it.

The problem with selling it was it would have been a $500 MM by a middle hi fi company Technics when exotic MCs had taken over the market and Technics knew no one would buy it.