> So subpixel-AA is a really neat hack that can significantly improve text legibility, great! But, sadly, it’s also a huge pain in the neck!

Especially when you have a monitor with unusual subpixel layout, which is very common for OLEDs that don't have any standard for it. In practice, developers of common font libraries like FreeType simply didn't bother with trying to support all that. And that trickles down to toolkits like Qt. Surprising the article doesn't mention this major problem with modern displays.

> Retina displays really don’t need it

Assuming this means high resolution displays - unfortunately that's not always what you end up using. So subpixel antialiasing can still be useful, if it can work. But as above, it's often just broken on OLEDs.

Arguably monitors that are not mere TVs ought to allow control of each distinct pixel they drive internally and communicate their layout and if needed distinct brightness/color coordinates to the host.

Exceptions can apply if the consumers of the screen can't resolve details finer than "emulated sRGB pixels" anyways.