[davelab6]

Google Fonts has only single style families on purpose, to prioritize a limited budget, so the most popular single style fonts can be improved into families with confidence there is demand for them.

But expanding single styles into families is not as easy as it should be. That's why I help start http://metapolator.com which takes www.metaflop.com and removes the 'write metafont code' part of the process.

As you say, if you want the fonts to be better sooner than Google, you can pay for it - either by commissioning the designer to improve the open source fonts or by going across the street to a paid web font service.