It seems to be the earlier posts in this interesting thread which have disappeared for me.
There are two things you need to do to make two fonts line up. Firstly the metrics which control the line spacing should be the same of very similar and secondly the character spacing ( ‘tools’ → ‘optical metrics’ ) should be changed. The optical metrics doesn’t necessarily need to be the same, but a value which will make the fonts take up a similar copy fit.
In Tip of the Day - #36 by Bhikkhu_Pesala there is a listing of a much larger selection of preview samples, I use the ‘Lorem ipsum …’ sample in a large preview window to view several lines of text then switch between the fonts to see the difference in copy fit. If you have a large window with many lines at a small point size and the line breaks happen in the same places then the fonts are comparable in copy fit.
I use this method to try to make the italic and bold versions of the font take up a similar space to the roman version (it isn’t always possible). Usually the italic and bold versions of the font need a tighter spacing to achieve the same copy fit.
Hope this helps.