Mr. Lavigne - perhaps the best post ever on AudiogoN!
You're exactly right and everything you've stated applies to the whole game, right down to what speaker wire people prefer.
It's all got to do with what plays best in our individual rooms and what sounds best to those funny looking transducers on either side of our respective pointy heads.
So many things can impact the percieved sound, ESPECIALLY an LP, the cartridge used, the loading used, the pre-amp used, etc. etc.
... maybe that thought will bring balance back to Tvad's mellow ...
If I were Crawl3, I'd start with the 30th anniversay edition before moving into the big-money versions. I'm reasonably happy with it and it blows away the red-book CD version I had prior... not sayin much but, still, worth the $30 I shelled out for it.