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In a different context, look at text rendering. It should be the opposite of the spectrum and stabilized for a long time, except we keep adding better rendering tricks and simplifications (not at the scale of 3d rendering but keep in mind how simple the problem looks compared to it)

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I think it's the opposite.

Text rendering used to involve complicated hinting and then subpixel rendering.

These days on Retina screens you don't need hinting or subpixel rendering.

You just render it like any set of curves, no longer any tricks about it being a font, because it's hi-res enough.

What rendering tricks are you suggesting are being added rather than being taken away, for fonts?

Thats what I meant, were still simplifying things in 2020 for text rendering. Antialias and Cleartype are still used so it's not a settled technique, the environment is still changing.

Well, there are signed distance field fonts for one thing.

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