All new cartridges have a very unique flavor profile born from the sum of all of its different parts and the way in which everything is fastened together. I don’t think you can except to change any one of these critical parts and have the exact same flavor profile afterwards. That’s not to say that it can’t come back from Steve at VAS or wherever sounding good, great, or maybe even better than when new, but I would expect it to sound different.
I recently needed a rebuild on an Audio Tekne MC 6310. I’d just received a rebuild back from Steve on an older Audioquest and it sounded very good for the $500 that he charged. But I decided to send the Audio Tekne back to the factory in Japan where it was completely rebuilt by the craftsman who originally built it over a decade ago. The rebuild cost was $1000, twice what a VAS rebuild would have been, but I believe that the cartridge now sounds the same as it did when it was new. Not worse, not better, not different.