Interesting article, although reading it brought a few chuckles.
First of all, as someone who sold and set up perhaps 4,000 turntable and cartridge combinations (and who-knows-how-many upgrade cartridges and replacement styli) ranging from entry level Japanese belt-drive Technics and Kenwoods, to REGAs, Thorens, DENONs, on up to SP10's, Missions, Linns and Oracles in my retail audio career, I think we should establish some terminology.
A HiFi-worthy turntable requires a cartridge and a cartridge employs either a fixed or removable stylus. A "needle" refers originally to the steel needles that the first turntables used ... you bought them in boxes of 30 or 50 and replaced them every dozen record plays or so. Later, the 99 cent replacement needles that adorned the cheapest record players with ceramic cartridges took over the term.
No respectable moving magnet or moving coil cartridge used a "needle", they use a stylus. Please never refer to the this part as a needle again; it makes you look clueless about Audio, which I am confident you are not. I am going to put it down to what I assume to be your youth, born after the turntable ceased to be the critical source of a quality music system.
EDIT: Wow, just noticed it was you, Gene, who penned this article. I know you don't need the history lesson, but did you really refer to styli as "needles" in your sales career? Must be a Florida thing ;-)
Secondly, I am sure you would like to rephrase the line:
" ... a ground terminal that ensures warm, true sound. ..."
The ground terminal, of course, is there to reduce or eliminate hum from the turntable's output, and has absolutely no effect on the warmth or "truth" of the sound of vinyl.
As a practical matter, you will find that either hooking up the ground to the phono preamp or not hooking up the ground to the phono preamp will kill the 60Hz (or 50Hz outside North America) AC hum. If your particular table uses a non-polarized 2-prong AC connector, which you won't find today but might on a vintage unit, be sure to try reversing the plug at the AC wall outlet as well.
Generally the option is very system dependent; try both, choose one.