Everything is subpar to me other than 5K (or XDR). With you on that. macOS just doesn't handle displays very well.
It’s interesting how that went. Apple OSes had subpixel rendering forever, going back to the Apple II. OSX was noted for it’s font rendering, especially compared with the sh!tshow that was Windows at the time.
At some point in the recent past Apple must have decided that monitor technology has come far enough and reached a point where we don’t need that crutch anymore. That’s certainly true with the current Studio Display or Pro Display XDR, so why doesn’t everybody just upgrade their monitors? 😆