I own a Proj-Ject Debut Carbon DC and have had it for about 4 years. It's a very good turntable. It's not mind-blowing, but I paid less than $400 for it with the Ortofon 2M red cartridge, a cork mat, 45 adapter, and the original cables. The biggest fault I have found with it is that it picks up footfalls and other transferrable vibrations. This will be the case for pretty much every 'table of even somewhat similar design. Even my Technics 1200 picks up footfalls to some extent. The solution there is to build or otherwise acquire a wall-mount shelf (which is an absolute necessity if you are going to use a suspended table like a Thorens, Dual, Gerrard or Philips).
I find the Pro-Ject to be an excellent reference for a good quality table that doesnt break the bank. Comparable in sound to the Rega of similar design that my dad owns, and superior to the U-turn tables that I have messed with from time to time. The sound is more balanced than with the U-turn, which also has a tendency to sound a bit... ehh... we'll say "elementary". Lacking detail, some odd peaks and valleys... Hard to describe other than to say that the U-turn is probably decent value for the sub $300 market but isn't for someone who is going to listen intently much of the time.
My experience with the Rega is that it's at the other end of the spectrum. Very refined sound... so refined that it's almost subdued. To get a little more life out of it I had to switch the cartridge to something with a little more attack. I also had to get several replacement belts for the rega because I found them to be of inconsistent quality causing pitch variations. Once I got it right, it was a very pleasing turntable to listen to.
I prefer my Pro-Ject to the others because it sounded more lively and musical right out of the box, and the aesthetics are preferable to the Rega (by a small margin... I mean they are almost identical with the exception of the location of the power switch). The Pro-ject has kept time properly since the beginning without needing a new belt. It also seems to have every bit as much detail as the Rega, but the sound is more engaging and I find myself more likely to listen to another record. I have tried a couple different cartridges on both the Pro-Ject and the Rega. Interestingly, the Pro-Ject sounds better with the 2M Blue, while the Rega sounds a bit harsh with the 2M Blue... I actually prefer the Red on the Rega. I had a somewhat similar result with the At VM540ML on each table, although in the end, I would certainly prefer the 540 on the Rega vs the 2M Red. It was a wash on the Pro-Ject between the 540 and 2M Blue. Each had strengths and I liked the both for different reasons.
With regards to the anti-skate system... I haven't had any issues with mine. It's very similar and a LOT less fiddly than the not-user-friendly version of anti-skate on my Thorens TD-165. Is it as simple as on my Technics? No. but that's an apples/oranges thing (and unless you have tens of thousands of dollars in testing equipment, you don't ACTUALLY know how much anti-skate force is actually being applied by ANY system... you'd have to measure friction coefficients within the tonearm bearings, between the contact points of whatever anti skate system is employed, or have some method of isolating and measuring the lateral force imparted on a tonearm, and do so in such a way that the measurement itself doesn't impart any force of its own.... which is all just to say the best way to set it is with play testing). I can't imagine someone who is capable of setting up a variety of cartridges on fixed headshells would ever have any meaningful issues setting up the Pro-Ject anti-skate weight. Worst case, one might need to replace the monofilament line attached to the weight, or retie the loop that goes over the tonearm stub.
But then again, people say that iPhones are easy to use and they are a mystery to me, so I guess everyone has their strength and weakness.
As with anything else, there are a million confounding factors, like cabling, amp/preamp pairing, mounting (as noted above... and this is really the single best upgrade I can recommend, especially since it will be useful for all future upgraded 'tables) and of course the cartridge used.
Anyway, my own experience with my Debut Carbon DC doesn't match the horror stories that I see so often about Pro-Ject tables. I can only guess that they had...? have...? some QC issues with production, but my experience has been great. I have little use for my Pro-Ject given the variety of other great, and sentimentally significant turntables that I own, but I have never been tempted to sell it because it's a very solid performer and has a great look.
). And that last sentence explains why I rarely get into threads about cartridges. I have nothing to offer. I also wear hearing aids.