>> Probably, one will still need to install fontconfig. Maybe you could try >> out if emacs works for you without fontconfig. It did, to my surprise, >> for me. > > I just upgraded my profile and remove gs-fonts, and Emacs still displays > properly. So unless there’s an evil cache somewhere, I’d say that it works.
I can confirm Emacs working fine on a clean install without installing any additional font packages, which I take to confirm your findings. Best wishes, Alex