I'll try to run this down, in simple terms, as I don't consider myself any big authority, but do have mucho experience with analog.
An Anti-Skate mechanism is nothing more than a band-aid, which is required for pivotal Tonearms.
A Pivotal Tonearm has a tendency, due to physics, to wish to "skate" towards the center of the record, while the record is in play.
The Anti-Skate device "resists" this tendency, either by a tension spring, or other means, which tries to keep the arm in a neutral boyancy so to speak, in a horizontal plane.
The objective, basically, is that a Tonearm, and the Cartridge, and Stylus stay perfectly centered in a record's groove, favoring neither the inner, or outer wall of a groove. That equal force be given to each wall of a groove, so the stylus can pick up, and transmit the information from either groove wall.
To go, and explain further, many modern day gurus claim that they use as little, to no anti-skate whatsoever on a tonearm, that that "zero" setting gives the best sound, and performance per given Cartridge.
All I can say, is that I've usually used a blank track on a test lp, and some futher minor tweaking visually, by viewing a Stylus as it lands-retracts from a groove, and of course ultimately, how it sounds, and I've never ever had mistracking, or channel imbalance problems, by using these simple methods.
Generally, the method claimed by all of us analog fans, is that if the Stylus calls for a vertical tracking weight/force of 1-1/2 grams, to then of course set the Anti-Skate Dial to 1.5.
But, there's not a Tonearm made virtually, where these simple settings can be relied upon.
Anti-Skate can, and will vary from the outer lead in tracks, to the inner tracks on a record with a pivotal Tonearm, so with that being said, one can only try to find a "happy medium", where the Tonearm-Cartridge will perform its best throughout the entire side of an LP-Record.
Some experimentation is required, and I've found that this setting can enhance the performance of a Cartridge. but not quite so "critical", and important as other settings, such as VTA, VTF, Loading, Gain, Arm
compatibility, and truthfully, about another 1/2 dozen tweaks adjustments in the analog chain.
A simple layman's term, or recognizance, would be, if the stylus hits a scratch, and the stylus skates 15 grooves, and goes 1/2 way through the song, somthing is drastically off! lol I hope this helps you, with some basic understandings. Mark