I would think it depends upon what your goals are.
If someone was making an all out assault on the state of the art, then they would spend the majority of money on a turntable. There's a handful of $150k plus turntables, but phono stages seem to top out around $50k. Does anyone make a $20k plus cartridge?
If you entire system is less than $20k, then you might choose differently. Also are you putting together a vinyl setup from scratch? Starting from a blank slate gives the user a lot of freedom, but I think it's more common for someone to already have a vinyl system and wants to improve it somehow. My guess is that people in this situation overspend on a cartridge. I could be wrong.