yes you are right it is not working, in the way, I thought. However, I am attaching a plot generated by your command and I am using PyFerret V7.5 in Ubuntu/Linux. So it might be a version difference.
Though the plot looks fine to me without overlapped labels.
I get the same plot as yours, of course! The overlapped labels appear when I use a system font.
My previous email message was dedicated to testing the functionality of the significant-digit parameter of SHAKEY and so I didn't bother to set fonts.
Do you get overlapping labels if you set
set text/font=Courier
before making the plots?
It's still possible that you don't get overlapping labels. It's possible that it's a Mac-only problem.
Ryo