Naming issue with variable-weight font 'Public Sans'

I have an issue with the font 'Public Sans' which seems to mess up in various ways on my Ubuntu 18.04 system with Gnome Font Viewer 3.28.0, libfreetype 2.8.1-2.ubuntu2.1 and fontconfig 2.12.6.

When I install the Public Sans font "PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf" obtained from the zip file from https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Public+Sans, it appears in LibreOffice with the name "Public Sans Thin", not "Public Sans". When listed out using fc-list, it also shows the name "Public Sans Thin" for all weights, as well as "Public Sans" (see below). Finally, when I export a PDF from LibreOffice that uses multiple weights of this font, they all appear with the 'Thin' weighting, not the same (correct) weightings as seen in LibreOffice.

I first reported this with Gnome Font Viewer, then with freetype, then I was suggested to report here. See also: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-font-viewer/-/issues/22#note_1187385 and freetype/freetype#1067 (closed)

At the moment, I have to conclude that this particular variable-weight font is completely unusable on Windows. This is a serious issue, since fonts like Public Sans are being increasingly used by users of the latest versions of MS Office, and editing these files on Linux is quite problematic.

john@thunder:~/ENGN8833$ fc-list | grep Public
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Thin
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=ExtraLight Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Black
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Thin Italic,Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=ExtraBold
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Bold
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Thin,Regular
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Bold Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Regular
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=SemiBold
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Medium
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Light
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=ExtraBold Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Light Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Medium Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=ExtraLight
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Black Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Thin Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=SemiBold Italic
/home/john/.local/share/fonts/PublicSans-Italic-VariableFont_wght.ttf: Public Sans,Public Sans Thin:style=Italic