Why is the price of new tonearms so high

heck! never *not* spring only = never spring only...

Dear Axel, of course - you need the counterweight to balance the tonearm.
Now we have the state of balanced.
Dynamically balanced means ............. no, I think this belongs to someone else to clarify.
My knowledge is too limited - we have other experts on theoretical physical details in tonearm design.
Cheers,
D.

Hey D.
it was our dear friend: Perrew, asking that CW related question, by (I guess) looking at a dismantled arm pic sans CW, OK :-)

Yes thats true but I was using the picture to argue that the spring would result in zero moment as opposed to the static which uses the CW to hold the needle down, but as I said dont know if this is important.

Dear Axel, I was only refering to the pictures to illustrate a point which is floating around in this thread since a long time.
Something which is here - put on teh web by a source which is VERY different from me - shown for all to see that some less than bright remarks about the construction of the tonearm-designs I. Ikeda made in the late 1970ies are plain wrong and without any support by reality.
Cheers,
D.