Nice - it may seem you have some old documentation and have missed bit 3 or reg $6b 3 - enable "text mode" (https://wiki.specnext.dev/Tilemap_Control_Register) - which puts the tilemap into bitmap mode. This then means you can use a regular 1 bit font, and you can then copy the ROM font instead of running the characterSet.bas to generate the tiles.
If you change :
REG $6B,@11101001
and then comment out the BANK COPYs then add:
FOR %B=0 TO 1535 POKE %X+B, PEEK (%15616+B) NEXT %B
Should do the trick :) Its a shame as the character generator is very nice.