Thanks for pointing out the tag text plugin, Yura G. I didn't know about that one, and it looks like it'll do all I wanted and then some.
The thing is, I normally avoid using third-party plugins since they aren't guaranteed to be supported and I've often found them to be buggy. It ***** to invest time into integrating some plugin only to realize it isn't reliable and/or isn't supported by the author. I might break down and use this one since rex is so active, but I would still love to see official support for more text options.
I don't make direct changes to official plugins btw, for the reason you mentioned. I made a copy of the text plugin with my changes to test that what I was asking for could be done easily. But still, I wish I had named it "Super Text"... I called it "Text Stroke" which now seems very boring.