We build both zero feedback and feedback phono sections. There's nothing wrong with feedback if its properly applied. The big deal you don't want is the circuit generating ticks and pops due to high frequency overload. That is easily avoided either way.The point is this only looks like nfb but isn't really. Normal shunt feedback requires two resistors: the shunt one, which here is the riaa network and one in series which in this case is the output impedance of the first stage. Because of the shunt, the first stage sees a frequency dependent load which matches exactly the riaa curve. It is unfair to compare this to classic voltage nfb which in most phono amps is around two or more amplification stages.