Elliot, I personally have always used the "start with headshell level" technique. I have never ever, nor will I ever, take the trouble to directly measure SRA. Not the least of the reasons for my choice is the fact that I am not trained to measure SRA correctly. There is no reason to burden a newbie with the idea he has to measure SRA or needs special equipment to do so, IMO.
Recommendations for setting VTA
All of the other cartridge alignments are possible for me to set with some level of confidence, but then there is VTA. Yes, I am confident when making parallel, the tonearm with the platter, but then there is the sighting of the stylus position in respect to the groove. Is there a microscope made especially for this task? FWIW, I own a Schiit SOL, and yes, it has adjustable VTA on the fly, but trust me, it is the coarsest adjustment that you can imagine, and in my case, broken to start with! TT came that way when I bought it second hand.