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This has been a known bug for well over a decade: https://www.lighterra.com/articles/macosxtextaabug/

I wouldn't hold your breath on a rendering fix

Apple 'fixed' it in 10.14 by disabling subpixel anti-aliasing all together (what this post argues against)

Well, as long as you use Hi-DPI (or "Retina", as Apple likes to call them) displays over your entire product line, subpixel rendering doesn't have as big of an impact anymore. I also suspect that's what's going on with the designers who are wont to disable subpixel rendering for their sites: they also mostly have Macs with Hi-DPI screens, so they don't see the benefit of subpixel rendering.

Apple’s MacBook Air, from 2019, was the last MacBook with a non-retina display - which was only 2 years ago.

This goes out the window the moment you attach a second monitor for most folks. 1080p is very common; if we start talking about achieving retina at that resolution (say 220 DPI, a rough average across modern Macbooks), we're talking 10-inch displays. Even at 4k we're talking a max size of 19 inches or so before things get outside of Apple's ideal DPI.

I can't speak for you, but for my work and current eyeglass prescription, 27 inches is my starting point for comfort.

Even if I dislike it, Apple seems to have removed the global option to turn font smoothing off in Big Sur.

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