This seems to be a tradition in the linux-laptop world. "1080p ought to be enough for anyone!"

Use a 13" 4k for a few weeks and try to go back. Actual high-dpi screens are where it's at.

What a tiring trope. I use a high resolution macbook for work and a 1366x768 13 inch laptop for personal use. Like OP, I greatly prefer the font blockiness the latter provides especially in terminals.

And yes, I've tried smooth fonts and FixedSys/Less Perfect DOS-VGA on both and prefer blocky ones every time. High res screens love to use smoothing and subpixel rendering and I very much prefer none of it.

Edit: point being if you switch to high res displays, you won't always like it more

> High res screens love to use smoothing and subpixel rendering and I very much prefer none of it.

Quite the opposite! These are hacks for low-res displays to make type look better. Sufficiently high resolution displays disable these because they are high resolution enough that your eye perceives a smooth line/edge already without having to resort to hacks to avoid stairsteps.

If we're talking about actual smoothing, anti-aliasing, then that's not a hack, that's a necessity for non-bitmap fonts until you reach extreme resolutions. If you want your eye to perceive a stairstep as a smooth line you need to start talking about 16K screens.