> Most people may not explicitly notice it, but it certainly affects the impression they get from a website.

Most people already have attractive, readable fonts installed on their computers, which are likely either sensible defaults, or configured for specific reasons (e.g. minimum size to deal with eyesight). Web pages that render as blank white space for awhile, or briefly tease me with text before blanking it out, give me a much more negative impression than ones that simply render in my chosen default fonts.