Are you using anti-skating or not

Bill, essentially you are saying: AS is not important. Or am I wrong?

Chris

I'm saying that based on my equipment, which is reasonably high quality and precisely aligned, I find AS contributes nothing positive to vinyl playback.

A blanket statement such as "AS is never needed" would be foolish. Given the permutation of tonearm/cartridge combinations, I'd bet you'll find some that benefit from AS.

YMMV

I not using AS (I have also removed the mechanism), I'm also finding that I can run much less VTF. So far, almost a gram less. I say so far because I haven't yet found the low point where mis-tracking occurs.

And this subject goes on and on. I tried eliminating all AS but found that just a very small about was necessary for proper tracking and balance.

It depends on the table and arm (and cartridge, too, probably).
I have a Well-Tempered table and arm with a Van den Hul Frog cartridge and don't use any anti-skating force.
I've, also, had the table set-up by two different dealers who didn't use any on it.
Both channels seem to track equally well and, after a few years of heavy use, I had my cartridge examined under a microscope by a dealer to see in what shape the stylus was. He said it showed relatively little wear--and no uneven wear--due, he went on, to my very careful set-up.
He said that is common practice for that table/arm and doesn't use any on them, either.

This is a classic YMMV situation.