Yeah it doesn't take much dirt on the stylus to make things noisy. I've had that happen to me also.
I've also noticed that on at least a couple of pieces of modern music they are adding surface static noise as a production method. Adds to the ambience or something.
The other vexing thing about vinyl is that as the cartridge and system gets better and more revealing more of the imperfections of the vinyl process is revealed. But I do think that stylus shapes like the shibata can bypass a lot of surface junk that simple shapes will run over.