Experience With Linear Tracking Turntables

@dover I could not disagree with you more.  It is the addition of excessive AS that can damage a cantilever.  Moreover you over state the case by exaggerating the frequency of occurrence.  I have decades of experience setting up turntables.  I have never, not once, seen a cantilever "skewed" as you describe because of too little or even no AS applied at all.  On the other hand, I have seen damage as you describe caused in cases where AS was set excessively high.  The incidence rate of damage has gone down in recent years in my experience as more MC cartridges have come into vogue.  I have surmised that this is due to their generally lower compliance.  So the problem has become much less frequently encountered in the past 2 decades or so.  I see this type of damage once or twice a year.  I set up perhaps 1 or 2 turntables in any given week. 

P.S.  Last year our plumber rewired our whole house and did a first rate job.

@billstevenson 

It is the addition of excessive AS that can damage a cantilever. 

That is my point. In most cases I see too much.

@billstevenson 

The incidence rate of damage has gone down in recent years in my experience as more MC cartridges have come into vogue. 

Not necessarily. If you work with cartridge manufacturers and rebuilders a lot, as I have, they can see uneven wear on the stylus within a few months from new. It may not be discernible for some, but it is real.

dover, the antiskate setting on Technics turntables is ~10% of VTF according to their specifications.  I believe most other reputable companies are calibrating in a similar manner.  VPI recommends no antiskate at all.  A view that I once viewed with doubt, but have more recently grown more comfortable with.  That covers most of the cases I see, and I see a lot of TTs.  As lewm correctly pointed out, there is no way to actually measure the amount of AS force being applied in most cases.  I can measure the effect of the applied force by using AnalogMagik to measure resultant distortion.