Steve, when I was looking there wasn't much available that fit the criteria: among those considered was the big P Lurne (too complicated & many lacquered wooden parts so, vulnerable), the P Triangle Export (too finical & I wanted "better" sound), Oracle (it seemed too complicated too, although robust looking), Townsend Rock (irreplaceable parts -- I liked that one though), VPI (good construction, but too many wooden parts & "complicated" set-up to get the voiving I wanted)...
The Teres (a good idea from Twl who's researched these things) wasn't around.
So, the somewhat expensive (then; nowadays "reasonable") S. Yorke, looked good; with a bog-standard outboard motor (easily replaceable), no wood apart from the basic board that serves as an armboard, no "belt" problem (being outboard, the motor is placed wherever you like; in fine, you only need a thin rubber band of reasonabley large diametre to make the platter turn -- sorry this doesn't sound very hi-end, but it's true, I've done it), it looked promising.
It also sounded good (better to my ears than the Lurne+parallel arm+ the good'ole Grasshopper), which was heart-warming.
Strangely, the cartridge doesn't worry me; I have a feeling (i.e. no corroborating evidence) these will be around for a while... the fact that products like Shelter pop up, are a consolation. Clearaudio also seems set to last for some time, and others -- I can't vouch for the VdHul Colibri, but who knows?
As to the arm, I've decided to get an extra one, when finances allow -- a VERY user-friendly unipivot, hopefully available for around $ 1k. Hopefully, I'll make do with that & my present arm (I only have ~3000 LPs now, nothing like your collection!)
Cheers