Sadly, the above is quite correct.
I hesitate to suggest it, but you 'might' be able to reduce the drive's capacity with fewer sectors per track, and get it to work. (Keep the same number og heads and tracks, so the drive actuates correctlty, but lay down fewer sectors.)
(Eg, if you have a st-225 with 615,4,17 for chs, you MIGHT try 615,4,12 with rll encoding. There's some math you could do to derive suitable auraral density of the medium with the new encoding by examining the raw bit patterns laid down, if you feel like doing that, so you can zero in on the 'best fit' new geometry. Low-level formatting is assumed, naturally. You would need to consider the total number of inversions used to encode mfm over a given sector, (convenient wiki article) -vs- that for rll encoding, then determine the RATIO difference, then reduce number of sectors by that RATIO. The resulting auraral density should be the same, so bit flipping shouldnt happen. Theoretically.)
(The wiki article for RLL gives a hint for this, at least for 2,7 RLL.
(2,7) RLL edit
(2,7) RLL is rate-1⁄2 code, mapping n bits of data onto 2n bits on the disk, like MFM, but because the minimal run length is 50% longer (3 bit times instead of 2), the bits can be written faster, achieving 50% higher effective data density. The encoding is done in 2-, 3- or 4-bit groups.
Western Digital WD5010A, WD5011A, WD50C12
So, the correct ratio reduction would be 2/3 the number of sectors.
(3, is 50% bigger than 2. The gain is 1. 2/3 of 3 is 2. This is the correct ratio, at least for 2,7 RLL, per wiki)
So, for that 17 secors per track st-225, you would work out to 11.333 sectors. My guess of 12 works, with a little extra fudge room. Who'da guessed!)
In theory, that would spread the data markings over a longer run.
If the issue is with data density being too high (bit inversions in the media from domains too close together), this might 'fix' it, by spreading the markings over a larger area. (The drive will spin at the same speed, and the tracks will be the same stepping, but the sectors will be spread out more)
It's a crapshoot if that would work reliably or not though.
If the issue is from a lack of signal intensity (head is not dwelling long enough/not outputting enough energy to properly set medium polarity) or quality though, it's gonna be like putting a type iv metal cassette in a standard tapedeck. Not gonna work good regardless.