Fascinating read. Font rendering perfectly encapsulates the conflict between continuous mathematical curves and discrete pixel grids.
I run into similar 'quantization' challenges when building generative design systems in Python. Sometimes a mathematically 'perfect' alignment on the grid looks optically wrong to the human eye. The anti-aliasing logic described here is a great mental model for handling those edge cases.
I honestly recommend any introductory type design book for all the considerations that go into achieving optical balance.