Monaspace has a feature called "texture healing" that does something similar: it allows bigger letters to "steal" space from adjascent smaller letters, to make it easier to read. The result is that the letters are still in a grid, while still allowing for bigger letters to "breathe".
https://github.com/githubnext/monaspace/blob/main/docs/Textu...
It's the main reason I use monaspace as a font.