No cartridge is good enough.

Phono is an inherently flawed from the get go 100 year old technology. It'll never be perfect. Probably never much more than possible today. Cart alone is not fo concern. The entire system setup and how well done and integrated (cart/arm/table/phono pre-amp/pre-amp) is.

It is an amazing technology that has overachieved and managed to hang around for a long time. But it ain't getting any better than possible already today, except perhaps for those few willing to devote major chunks of time money and effort in their home to try and make it better.

Optical cartridge looks very interesting. Anyone tried it?
With ELP system, besides other things, I would be concerned about the table itself. I may be wrong.
Japanese are moving in the right direction, I think.
MM/MC cartridge is a very primitive design that we don't have to live with. The turntable itself is a very simple design that we have to live with, no objection from me.

In my opinion a cartridge does not "extract" music from the groove, but instead interprets the music from the groove. I view them as musical instruments that impart their own subtle flavor to the music.

The trick is to find the flavor you like.

I know there a lot of vinyl lovers here, but this conversation is like discussing how best to optimize the steam engine with the latest carbon fiber technology.

Yes, we could take miniature video cameras and photograph undulations in the grooves, then use image recognition software to regenerate the waveform. But why? Every modern technique used today (including the laser) has to go through a digital front end process, and if you are going to do that, go back to the original analog master tapes and find a way to digitally distribute the basic music with minimal loss. Throw away redbook specs and go 24bit/196K or whatever and I bet even 99% of audiophiles will not hear the difference.

There is another reason for optical scanning of older analog audio media- ancient discs, cylinders and other antediluvian media that are so fragile as to be damaged in the process of playback. Look up IRENE, Lawrence Berkeley labs. One was used recently to extract the information from some old Edison talking dolls; the dolls had a habit of self-destructing their little spools on playback. Some articles published on this too. I got to see IRENE on my visit to Culpeper, Va.last year, including the print out, but did not listen to the audio output.
As for the rest, whatever floats your boat....