Up grade to a new turntable

He didn't just say it is overrated, he said it is detrimental. 

VTA on the fly is highly over rated and can be detrimental to the performance of the tonearm.

Fremer never said any such thing. There are various methods of implementing (designing, building) VTA on the fly. Some of them undoubtedly not so good as others. Poorly implemented anything is never good. But VTA in and of itself? Essential.

As hshifi just said:

it was the VTA was the real factor that made it sound incredible.

Indeed. 

Sorry, but I am gonna break protocol and radio silence on this one. Don’t care what MF says. Don’t care what anyone says. Only care what my ears hear, because that is what we call REALITY. And reality tells me there is nothing in all of turntable setup that you can do that will have a greater impact on imaging, tone balance, detail and harmonic rightness than to precisely dial in VTA.

Budget tables have to meet a price point. For that they must make all kinds of sacrifices. VTA is relatively expensive to implement. As soon as funds allow however and you are in a range where VTA on the fly is possible, one of the smartest things you can do is exclude from consideration arms that lack VTA adjustment.

Tracking alignment you can do reasonably accurate and do just fine. Tracking angle after all varies several degrees across the side no matter what you do. Nobody ever hears this, though they love to opine on how critical it is. Even though they never hear it. VTF you are always given a range, and while small differences can be heard within that range they are nothing compared to the differences heard with VTA.

This leaves VTA as by far the most important of all the adjustments we have control over. It can only be done by ear. Not by measuring.

Maybe that is the reason some talk it down? It calls for listening skills?