I agree!
I would also suggest that super-tight RIAA EQ accuracy is not that important considering the frequency response errors introduced by most cartridges. I mean, it's important, for sure. But do you need +/-0.1dB accuracy from 20Hz to 20kHz? Or would it be just as good to have response that's +/-0.1dB from 50Hz to 15kHz, and down by -0.5dB by 20Hz and 20kHz? Remember, these are records. Can any LP playback system play 20Hz cleanly? Can any needle trace a 20kHz sine wave cleanly? Can it really?
That leaves headroom.
A good click on your LP is going to clip any phono preamp. You don't want it to smash the circuit so hard that you get what's called blocking distortion, where a momentary overload causes a few cycles of absolute silence while the amplifying circuit regains its equilibrium. You also don't want the circuit to slew limit on high frequency surface noise. That can cause a vague kind of 'harshness' to the sound of worn LPs. And you also don't want the amplifying circuit to scrunch on every tick and pop, causing them to sound louder than they actually are.
You know what's funny? That means vacuum tubes begin to look like a decent option. They are high impedance, sure, so they're going to be noisier. They age, so frequency response errors are sure to increase in magnitude as the tubes age. But, they operate at high voltage, and can swing lots of volts (relatively) cleanly. That means, if properly designed, they can give you lots of... headroom.
Everything is a compromise. Maybe in the case of playback of LPs, it's worth trading away noise and super-low THD for lots of headroom (and SINAD be damned).
I wonder if this is going to be controversial... We shall see.