I would like to confirm GuitarJoa's observation. I rarely watch videos with subtitles enabled unless the audio is really bad. However, a few days ago I did in fact enable subtitles on a particular video, and tried to change the font size in VLC's basic prefs. Similar to GuitarJoa, the font size change did NOT take effect. Currently, I am still using VLC 1.1.1, which I last compiled on my 27" iMac on July 7th. That's almost two weeks, so I guess I should update my source directory and do a new compile.
On the bright side, I also noticed a day or two ago that the equalizer settings -- particularly the "enable" box in the top left corner of the equalizer window -- is now remaining checked, even after shutting down and rebooting VLC.
So, there are some steps forward, and some steps backwards as well.
On a side note,I am thinking of giving the 1.2 source another try. Up until now, it has failed to compile for me, but I have had absolutely no problem with the 1.1 source. It compiles in roughly 15-20 minutes on my iMac. Felix and/or Pierre, have either of you successfully compiled 1.2 yet? Just wondering.
Thanks!