@jw944ts , Lets start with the Reed 3P. This is a brilliant design. It not only gives you adjustable VTA on the fly but also adjustable Azimuth on the fly and I think it is the only arm ever to do this. These would be cool features to have but unfortunately they had to sacrifice some basic design issues to do it. It seems if you want to come up with something "different" you have to violate design principles that have been known for decades. For a long time most arms were based on the SME 3009 and for a reason. It was the first arm that was distinctly headed in the right direction. It has issues but it was "the" pivoted arm to have for a very long time. OK, back to the 3P. That thing at the back that looks like an egg we shall call the bearing housing. I/2 way down the egg to the front of the arm is a ledge. Below the ledge the egg is twice as thick. just above that ledge you see a tab that comes off the arm with what looks like a vertical screw. That is a needle bearing and you can see a hardened cup in the ledge. That is the female side of the bearing. There is an identical bearing on the other side of the arm. Together these form the vertical bearing of the arm. It's level with the horizontal axis of the arm. Now in your head imagine a line that connects the center of the cartridge to the center of mass of the counterweight just below it's midpoint. The vertical bearing is far above that line. This is a stable balance arm. If you balance it so that it floats perfectly horizontal and you were to lift it up an inch and let go, it will oscillate up and down and finally come to rest back at horizontal. As the tonearm goes up the tracking force increases until the arm changes direction. As the arm goes down tracking force decreases until the arm changes direction. If you think about it this is a really bad deal for tracking records that are not perfectly flat. This is the arm that gets launched as it hits a warp big enough. The best way around this is vacuum clamping. A neutral balanced arm tracks better warps and all. The other problem with a bearing geometry like this is the problem of warp wow. As the tonearm rises over a warp the groove velocity increases as the effective length of the tonearm decreases relative to the plane of the record. As the tonearm travels down the warp it lengthens again slowing the speed down. As the vertical bearing rises above the record this worsens increasing " warp wow" The best you can ask for is bearings that are in the plane of the record minimising the problem. So, by virtue of it's design the 3P is going to have more difficulty following warped records and more warp wow than designs that do not sacrifice this for trick things like adjustable Azimuth on the fly.
Now lets go to the 2G. The 2G's bearing housing is quite different. Again it has two needle bearings for the vertical bearing. The female cups are under the housing mounted on a horizontal platform behind the tonearm rest platform. Just about at the level of the record. If you draw a line through the middle of the cartridge to the center of mass of the counterbalance this line will transect the vertical bearing. This is a neutral balance arm. If you balance it horizontal then pick it up 1 inch and let it go it just stays there. VTF does not change with elevation.
No bouncing up and down, no changing VTF. This is an arm that is much better over warps. It has superior tracking and less warp wow. It does not have adjustable azimuth on the fly. The vast majority of us set it and forget it. We may do it once every 5 years when switching to a new cartridge. Some people are switching cartridges every other side. They love this and removable head shells but they give up ultimate performance for that flexibility. Both arms will work on the SME.
If you were to AB both arms on SMEs with the same cartridge I seriously doubt any of us could hear a difference. On a less than flat record some of us might be able to hear a difference on certain types of material.
When I choose equipment I am after the ultimate performance. To sacrifice basic principles the benefit has to be great and IMHO adjustable azimuth on the fly is not worth it.
Happy Thanksgiving!