A quick question, on the other site where I use webfonts, the font is hosted on my site, so there is no extra “fetch” to a third party font repository. For the end user and from the browser side the site loads very fast, doing a Google Webmaster “Speed Test” the site scores 99% out of a 100%, and I do feel the font styling adds to the end user experience, as opposed to the generic, system fonts available to the end user, most of my IE webtraffic is either IE8 or 9, so I would dispute your point regarding loading an additional font family. All and all though I feel like “grasshopper” to your mastery.
Everything balances out.
On one hand… google probably has a faster bandwidth but MORE IMPORTANTLY there is caheing. if the user has visited another site with the same font source link… then the bandwith is also saved( while, even if your font was exactly the same , it would be downloaded again if it didnt come from the same URL) so the benefit from google is its popularity; if not as many folks d/l’ed from google, then it might not be as likely that your font was cached.
The upside… is that you can get any font you wish to get or BUY , as long as its license allows and that should google decide not to host that font anymore you are still good.
All and all though I feel like “grasshopper” to your mastery.
Nah. I have a long way to go , myself… I just have run into a bunch of bright folk (on here ) on the road.