i feel your pain my friend. i really do.
i don't have your skills of actually customizing or changing glyphs in fonts directly but i've customized and used scripts to fix glyph characters available as open type features. I've done this for fonts like:
- [Iosevka](https://kau.sh/blog/build-iosevka-font-mac-os/)
- [IBM Plex Mono](https://kau.sh/blog/freeze-alt-char-open-type-font/)
- [Jetbrains Mono](https://github.com/kaushikgopal/JetBrainsMono-KG) (yes, plenty of customization there)
- [Recursive](https://github.com/kaushikgopal/recursive-code-config)
it really is a sickness. a terrible sickness, if you care deeply about fonts. I know you don't care specifically about recommendations, but inevitably i've found myself gravitating to these fonts:
1. Berkeley Mono (paid)
2. SF Mono (walled)
3. Recursive (truly open and legible)
4. Commit Mono
I love the above fonts, but there's a few characters or quirks that drive me bananas on certain days, so inevitably find myself switching between them.