As long as a phono stage provides low noise and an accurate RIAA response, I’m not certain you realy need an uber expensive one. Sure you can spice things up with fancy circuitry or tubes etc, but ultimately, they don’t necessarily sound better, but different, as has been said an abundance of times.
One never needs an expensive anything but sound quality greatly improves with better equipment - especially phonostages. Most people who disagree have never owned expensive gear - they don’t think its worth it and decry the cost for those who do. I've owned an ARC PH 2SE, PH5, PH7, PH8 and now a REF 2SE over the course of 20 years and each time the improvement was significant until I got to the REF 2SE and it's AWESOME. I'm still blown away by its massive architecture of sound, extraordinary detail and sheer musicality.