If you look at this video from 23:00 minute onwards Jonathon Weiss explains clearly the drag of stylus during playback.
…
Respectfully… no he does not.
Then he says at 24:25 that, ”it is just common sense.”
In reality he doesn’t actually say a lot, despite the abundance of words used and the bolstering and emphasis of the hand waving.
Later in the 30-35 minute range he talks about the trails and tribulation of the machining in a fashion that that is reminiscent of the old testament exodus story.
IME a modern motorcycle engine or F1 engine looks like a lot more challenge than a block of metal to hold motor and platter assembly.
And even basic twin cam engines, and earlier engines use dowel pins to locate the head for machining and the head to the block.
The TT part is no where in the league of aerospace and rocket science.
And the materials and engineering do not even seem to be even in the league of a bicycle, ski or tennis racket… much less a glider or sail boat.
Getting back to reality, I can believe that the drag would be a function of force, distance and coefficient of friction.
So a high VTF would seem to have more drag.
But I doubt that the compliance of the cart has a ’bearing‘ on things.
and if the minuscule drag is varying, then using an oil or grease to increase the drag, would allow for the motor to run a bit harder to then be more immune to the tiny drag variations from the stylus.
Furthermore he talks about bass notes like the stylus is tracking the signal like it is a plot of voltage versus time.
However the RIAA curve sort tells us the HF notes are way hotter, and the bass way lower, and these ripples and undulations are largely the same amplitude at all the frequencies.
I just am unsure whether the increased force on the upstroke is countered by the decreased force on the down stroke as the stylus goes through a single sine wave jiggle.
The marketing aspect of the video it is pretty impressive.
