I believe I experienced great PRAT for the first time

I thought we were talking about pace, rhythm, and timing, which are actually 3 words that mean the same thing in audio. But none of them refers to “emotion” except obliquely. So,yeah…

"In any case shouldn't PRAT be more a function of the loudspeakers than any other component?"

No, in my opinion, although other than the turntable itself, I could imagine that loudspeakers would come in second as a determinant of PRaT.  (I've always hated that term, and I don't know why I am even getting into it now.)  To repeat myself, the turntable is first and foremost the device that preserves rhythm and timing of the music, by its capacity or lack of capacity to maintain a constant speed despite factors that tend to cause speed errors, like stylus drag, belt creep, etc.  I am not talking about absolutely perfect 33.333 rpm; small deviations are probably inaudible, but what is audible is the speed drifting up and down, which would be perceived as aberrant timing and loss of PRaT (god help us).  I have more or less mentioned this previously but perhaps it didn't make a dent.

"Perhaps there was something in Jimmy's idea all along as can be seen by the approach of experienced designers such as Russell Kauffman (of Russell K loudspeakers) who don't use any wadding/damping material in their current designs. Instead they seek to work with resonances instead of against them."

Can you see the logical fallacy in that statement?  Damping materials also seek to work with resonance.  There is no getting away from resonance, so any and everything you do to a cabinet can either broaden a resonant peak or attempt to reduce the peak resonance in magnitude or you name it. But resonance is there, regardless of how you treat it, so not treating it is just another choice off the "treatment" menu.

Pesky, in response to your rhetorical question, i dunno. DO Rega turntables produce PRAT, in fact? You suppose they do, but that’s an opinion to which you’re entitled.

In vinyl reproduction, timing of the music is entirely dependent upon the speed accuracy and constancy of the platter. The platter thereby recreates what the musicians laid down. To make an extreme point, if the platter doesn’t move there’s nothing. I think that’s what Ivor Tiefenbrun had in mind. But you can use the term PRAT any way you want. I certainly am not offended.

You can use the term PRAT any way you want. Or it can be a criterion by which to judge or describe vinyl reproduction. Would be my response.

It’s certainly viable, just like any other adjective we care to use to describe our subjective impression of how a system or a component may sound to us. Such adjectives are most meaningful when the other guy was in the same room with you at the same time listening to the same music.

And the turntable. It’s telling that Phoenix is driving the motor.

Excuse me, but wasn’t it Tiefenbrun’s (Linn’s) point that turntables create PRAT, not cartridges or anything else in the signal path. So, what turntable? Probably not an LP12. But maybe.