which turntable to buy for $1500 best value ?

If used tables are in the picture, why not vintage used, if well restored by the seller? You can buy many a very high quality vintage direct-drive tt for $1500 and less, with tonearm. (The built-on tonearms are not always up to the quality of the tt and its drive system, however. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.)

I really don't want to knock SOTA tt's per se, but the Star Sapphire that I used to own (for at least 5-10 years) could not hold pitch on piano chords, and I don't think it was a defective unit. Boy, was I surprised that I did not have to put up with that, when I replaced it with a Nottingham. I think Nottingham should be in this discussion, if vintage does not appeal to the OP.

Manitunc, FWIW, I owned a Sota Star Sapphire Series III with vacuum, which according to your history should have been free of the problem of pitch instability. It was not. I read elsewhere that the problem has indeed been eliminated in the Cosmos and Millennium tt's, but they of course are way beyond the upper price limit of the OP. I obviously do not know as much about the Sota products as do you. My experience is purely anecdotal.

When pitch wavers, trailing edges of piano notes seem to blur. That is quite noticeable, probably more noticeable to me than absolute pitch. The Notts Hyperspace which eventually supplanted the Sota Star Sapphire III in my system, definitely was free of that problem. But you make a good point; my SSSIII was early 90s vintage, and from what I gather the "Star" model is still made. The early and late versions might be the same in name only. Also, yes, the issue may stem from mounting the motor to the plinth where the platter and bearing ride in the spring suspension. Thus the belt has to stretch and relax in tune with the suspension, unless the environment is dead quiet and totally free of mechanical feedback.