In reply to Helonia VS Helvetica - Curious dearth of information:
All right, so I was going to keep my opinions to myself and just try to answer your basic questions, but where's the fun in that?
You begin by stating that you're starting to appreciate the subtle distinctions between Helvetica and Arial, which is admirable, I suppose, but not really what typography is about. I would identify as a complete type nerd, a real typophile who earns something of a living playing with type, and I have to say I can't appreciate any such subtle distinctions. Or perhaps I could spend my time looking for them in order to confirm that Helvetica is a more original and successful design than Arial, which I already knew, but I just don't see the point. Helvetica is ugly, first of all. Well, in order to not start another love/hate Helvetica thread, of which I'm sure there are plenty, I'll say that Helvetica is the archetypical example of a "realist" or "grotesque" sans serif. But just because it is perhaps the most recognizable or most pervasive example of a genre, do we automatically assume it is the best? It wasn't the first and it wasn't the last, so why the obsession? Even if Helvetica is the best Swiss sans serif, who says that this is the most important category of typefaces, or that — even more importantly — it's the most interesting?
I doubt that the gainsayers of Helvetica hate it because it is too perfect and they are jealous of its success, or that their dissent has anything to do with "not being able to please everybody." Helvetica never tried to please everybody! There is really not very much reason to hold it up as the pinnacle of typographic achievement. It is a font, which may or may not be appropriate for whatever you happen to be typesetting, and just like any other font, it will be the wrong choice most of the time.
But I want to come back to the fact that it simply is not the most interesting typeface in the world, so if you want to dive into typography — which you should do, by all means, and have a blast — why not choose a more interesting tool to play with? Get Helvetica if you like, but before studying the 1001 microscopic differences between Helvetica and Arial, explore some of the incredible breadth of typographic expression. Play with some other faces and learn about the evolution of type and how we ended up at Helvetica. Learn where our alphabet comes from, study calligraphy and stonecarving and learn how to use a letterpress and a typewriter and all the other tools that brought typography to where it is now. I guess what I'm reacting to is your claim that you've been inspired to learn about type, and the most interesting thing you can think of doing is studying Helvetica. Maybe it's just me, but I think there's a world of things about type that are more interesting.
Have fun on the journey!
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Edit: And about the type being "improperly spaced," this is an element of the craft, as opposed to the art, of type design. It's a technical requirement that type be spaced well in order to read well. Even if you wanted to use improper or inconsistent spacing on purpose, as a stylistic choice of some kind, you need to remember that we're talking about a famously consistent typeface in which such a choice actually contradicts the pure modernist aesthetic of the font itself. Make sense?