Elegant solution for refreshing TFT display content?
If you look in the "Adafruit_GFX.cpp" you will see the following.

void Adafruit_GFX::setTextColor(uint16_t c) {
 // For 'transparent' background, we'll set the bg 
 // to the same as fg instead of using a flag
 textcolor = textbgcolor = c;
}

void Adafruit_GFX::setTextColor(uint16_t c, uint16_t b) {
 textcolor   = c;
 textbgcolor = b; 
}


If you only want to Draw the Character with a transparent background meaning you only write the character setTextColor in the prescribed pixels changing none of the surrounding pixels in the character block defined by x, y, setTextSize.

TFT.setTextColor(GREEN); //With Transparent Text Background not updating surrounding pixels.


If you want to Draw the Character with your background color, replace app pixels in the character block defined by x, y, setTextSize with your chosen text color and your background to be the same as your chosen background. This will overwrite all pixels with old character that are no longer used with the background color all at the same time preventing mess of pixels, and character flashing.

TFT.setTextColor(GREEN, BLACK); //With Text Background Color updating surrounding pixels.