One impediment to lifts is arm vs table geometry. Lifting the arm at the runout grooves of a record is basically an arm function, but it is commonly mounted on the table. If you buy separates, the table manufacturer doesn't know what arm you're going to install, and that inhibits his ability to locate a place to mount the lift. Vice versa, the arm manufacturer could go to considerable expense designing an arm-mounted lift device that would be user adjustable to engage when the arm reaches the runout grooves. This could be unwieldy and have an adverse effect on the sound, as well as cost a fair amount of money. Also, some tables might not offer sufficient clearance for proper location of the lift device.
Why Not Semi-Automatic Style Turntables?
It strikes me as odd that there are few (if any) high-end turntables that lift the stylus (tonearm) off the record at the end of play. Is this really that hard to do without compromising performance? It seems to me that some sort of infered sensor could determine when the tone arm has wandered far towards center, and a mechanically decoupled bar lift the tonearm off the record. Is something like this out there, and if not why? Is it really impossible to do this without compromising performance, or are turntable designers stuck with their own blinders?