Well, getting the hardware (manufacturers) to tell you what the hell it (their stuff) is doing is always a problem and even extremely complicated designs and massive marketing efforts like USB only kind of solve the problem for the most common of the common cases, but that’s kind of a truism.
Re you second point, I originally wanted to say something like “fonts aren’t, renderers are”, but in the meantime I read the Raster Tragedy[1] and it seems like the answer to your question is quite literally yes, hinting bytecode is in fact designed for a subpixel grid with a 1:3 aspect ratio (mostly by virtue of the font designer writing and checking it by feel using one). Shoehorning outline fonts and WYSIWYG layout onto low-resolution (≤ 150 dpi or so at 10 pt) displays is that much of a hack, and now I really, really want it to die, all the complaints about elitist designers notwithstanding. (That I find 200- and 300-dpi tablets and phones much more pleasant to work on is a mere coincidence, I assure you.)
Are you saying that many fonts are specifically designed for "3 column (and specific RGB order ?)" subpixel rendering ?