These settings (in about:config) makes font rendering look near identical to Chrome for me:

  gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.enhanced_contrast = 0
  gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode = 5
  gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.force_gdi_classic_for_families = ""

There has to be some reason why those are not the defaults though, right?

My understanding is that Chrome is the outlier when it comes to font rendering.

but still is what most people are used to... so in a sense, chrome is the default

That won't be a concern in 5 months ;)

What happens in 5 months?

Windows 7 support ends on Jan 14, 2020.

Windows 7 goes EOL maybe?