It is still very cool to be able to tune fonts that precisely on Linux, and it's a major feature.
Also, on many linux distribution you can modify your font configuration per user, here ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf (path may vary).
I don't really have the patience to faff about with font config files, it should 'just work'.
DirectWrite has a whole bunch of flags that configure sub-pixel and anti-aliasing as well as natural widths etc. So it might not look the same. To make matters worse it changes what settings it uses depending on the size of the type IIRC and even had a few font-specific tweaks there as well.
Windows apps in general might not look the same depending on whether they are using GDI, GDI+, DirectWrite (all considered native) and any combination of those flags... and of course it depends on whether the user has ClearType turned on and if they have used the Tuner to calibrate the rendering further for their preference...
Agreed. While much of the discussion surrounds making font rendering more Mac-like, fontconfig enables people to modify font rendering to suit their personal needs. For example: one user can turn off anti-aliasing to enjoy sharper fonts, while another turn it on to enjoy more accurate font rendering. Heck, you can even tweak things down to the font and application level without relying upon each program exposing that functionality.
This is not the sort of feature that will appeal to many people, but it is incredibly useful for those who use it.