...if you say so.
This one, specifically, is quite challenging. No, all carts with ML styli are as difficult to setup. Witness the original Lyra Lydian, if you owned one. With a modern SME or a Graham arm, a 2 minute job.
It also lacks bearings that won't chatter due to the energy of the cart.
How did you come up with the 2%? lol
FWIW, neither of the 2 PTGs I've owned and the 3 OC9s of various vintages needed an azimuth adjustment, and I align the cantilever.
If you measure the channel separation and output of the cartridge, you will come to the same conclusion about 2 % (or so ). It is in no way only AT's fault, but due to the construction it is the most likely to happen in an AT cart/stylus.
Setting up a ML equipped cartridge in SME in 2 minutes ? That would be the Mother LoL of all LoL's ...
You must have been the luckiest guy in the world with your 5 ATs, neither of which required azimuth correction.
FYI, with really good cartridges, azimuth for anything equal to or better than 35 dB of channel separation is in 1/3rd or less of a degree. You can not "eyeball", it has to be measured . Kuzma did provide for a thin line on its Reference arm - trouble is, that thinnest of lines that can be engraved on the arm tube is FAR thicker than the 1/3 of a degree azimuth correction requires. Luckily, at least the mechanism that turns this azimuth adjustment is free of play and is repeatable.
SME claims, IIRC, azimuth correct to 0.01 degree in SME V. Great - IF there was a cartridge of anything even approaching this accuracy. Compared to cartridge manufacturers, tonearm manufacturers have incomparably easier time; SME V has roughly 40 mm between ball races, a typical high quality stylus has 0.1 mm - and from this is easy to understand, that ANY error in mounting the diamond results in much more error than those 0.01 degree in bearing arrangement. Then compare the size of the tonearm tube and that of cantilever, etc, etc. But the biggest error usually occurs at the very end, by having the suspension not checked for the azimuth.
Because it is EXTREMELY HARD on the person doing this. And time consuming - which translates into expensive. I did adjust each and every cartridge while working at Benz's back in the day to perfection, as the construction does allow for azimuth adjustment once everything else has been set - a feature which AT , any of them, lacks. But frankly, at the end of the day I was devastated and could well understand the hidden laughter/mockery from other workers who were there longer. Such concentration is beyond what is sustainable for a human being in the long run.
That final adjustment has true place in conjunction with the actual arm with which it will be used. If I merely mention the Rega arms, which do not even have lapped surface of the headshell that comes in contact with the cartridge - how on earth do you think a perfect cartridge ( assume for the moment it exists in the first place ) would do regarding azimuth in something that rough ?
It is a matter of economics. Few can afford a SME arm, to be dwarfed in price with something like Blue Diamond Reference.
Which is, roughly, a 35K $ cart. For which one could expect, well - demand, to be straight.
It is perfectly possible to select out of multitude of samples, AT included, cartridges/styli that can, with the correct azimuth adjustment, provide superb end result.
This works, except in cases where manufacturer itself does the selection. Grado is such a case, where the same stylus off the assembly line is tested for tolerance and, in case of Grado, color coded, from black to gold. Clearaudio used to do the same way back in time, but this time the name of the model changed, specs largely remaining the same except for the channel separation - and each 2 dB increment made larger hole in your pocket. Ortofon also did have some cartridges with the Supreme suffix after the model - guaranteeing 35 or more dB separation. At roughly two to three times the price of the plain vanilla version.
Need I to go on ?
BTW - that arm on Debut is not so poor as you say; it is decent enough, if you are lucky or if you can adjust the bearings by yourself. Here, we crash into economics again; Project even sells the Adjust.It tool for this very purpose.
Again, if you want perfect bearings from the factory, Herr Breuer in Switzerland will still make you one true Breuer arm - if you rattle with enough pocket money .
If you want bearing quality "above any shadow of a doubt", for around 7K there is ingenious Kuzma 4Point ( superb sounding arm) and at merely 5 times the price, there is Vertere ( which I have yet to see in person ). Both have zero bearing chatter - by design, down to the molecular level.
Both allow for azimuth adjustment, too.