When performing a local() lookup for a font name first, the search is stricter, as it can only be uniquely matched, for example, a local() lookup for "Times" does not find the Times font, as its Postscript / Full Font name is "Times-Roman" and "Times Roman" respectively.
However, because whether it is supposed to be a unique match or a family match is not part of the font lookup key, the font cache now stores, that for this query, nothing was found.
Later, when a family match for "Times" comes in, this is rejected, as the font cache cannot distinguish whether the stored result was from an unique match, or from a family match.
Comment 1 by bugdroid1@chromium.org
, Jan 11