What happens when the stylus tip wears out on a $12,000 cartridge?

Chayro, I agree with your approach. If you love the cartridge it’s best to stay as close to original as possible when retipping. J Carr of Lyra wrote here that it may not be a good idea to change the cantilever material dramatically from original, since the suspension and other components were selected to work well with the original structure. Apropos of nothing, I followed that philosophy when having my Koetsu Urushi retipped by Expert Stylus; they replaced only the stylus. Surprisingly but only subjectively, the thing sounds better than ever. This probably means it was subpar long before I woke up and sent it off to ES in the UK.

Footnote:  

To those who are not familiar with the Denon 103R, it is made with an aluminum cantilever and a conical stylus.

Edit: 

"automation is less important to craftsmanship" should have read "automation is less important than craftsmanship"... I hope this is clearer.

If you take care of your cartridge and get 2000 hours out of it, at about 44 minutes per album, it is about 2,727 albums. If you pay $12,000 for the cartridge, it costs about $4.40 to play an album. Only you can decide if it is worth it to you.

Streaming doesn’t wear out, and with Qobuz it’s higher sound quality, too!

As good as Qobuz is, and it is good, it won’t beat a high quality vinyl rig. You are smoking some good s$&t….