Open new.
Press Text button on left side toolbar.
Type on drawing.
Select different font with top toolbar and it changes fine.
Select different size with top toolbar and it changes fine.
Now click on another part of the drawing to add more text, and it suddenly changes back to OCR A Extended.

I would think when you select a font it would stick until it's changed, rather than having it reset and then reseting it again for every new bit of text that you add.

I agree. This does not behave as expected.
If I open a new Inkscape GUI and
1. when pressing F8, the "Font-bar" says: "sans-serif" light 4
2. when I place the cursor somewhere, it says: Calibri Normal 18.75
3. when I start writing it's writing in Book Antiqua Normal 9.99999

Somehow the history or whatever is messed up.
I would call this a bug. Do others observe the same thing?

Yes. It shows the wrong font before I start typing. And it also doesn't allow to change the font first, then type (these issues were introduced with 0.91..., and I think there are reports for them... but I can't find them now. I also thought this was actually fixed, somewhere in between, in trunk..., but I might have gotten that wrong...).

I seem to recall this is expected behavior. I mean expected by the developers. I realize it would be preferable to remember the font. But as long as I've used Inkscape, it doesn't remember the font selection, and types the default font. Then you have to change it later.

I usually do various tricks to avoid having to change the font all the time. Like, I'll keep a W in my document, near where I'm typing. I use W, because I find it easier to place the cursor behind it, than for example an "I". So I copy the W, and paste it where I want the text, then put the cursor behind it, and type whatever text I need. Then I go back and either delete, or backspace the W out. I go to all that trouble, because I like to see my text in the font I want, as I type. I find it annoying to type in a font that I don't want.

The only other option is to be changing your default font with each new document that uses a different font.

The thing that was introduced in 0.91, is that it doesn't show your default font, as the default (in the control bar). It shows the family, or something like that. Like for me, it shows "sans", instead of Arial or MS Sans Serif or other sans serif. Hhm, well ok in 0.92, it shows "sans-serif" instead of "sans".

I wouldn't be surprised if it's a long standing bug though. Or if not, if there's a long standing feature request. Or if there isn't, there ought to be.

Just tried searching LP briefly. Nothing jumps out at me, by scanning the report titles. But often the title doesn't represent the actual bug very well. Or often there's terminology that I don't understand or expect.

I would probably ask on either the mailing list, or developer's IRC about it. They can refer you to the proper bug report or feature request, if there is one. Or maybe we'd be lucky enough that ~suv answers this....

Well, ~suv must at least have had a short look at it because I filed a bug report and he changed the tags... let's see and hope...
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1659939

Well, that's good news then!