The automated ones don't care, but it absolutely matters for the informal credit assignment process that actually runs academia.

I really wish we had a better way to "name" papers. Big clinical trials often have an acronym (often hilariously forced: "CXCessoR4"). That takes the emphasis off (one) lead author but it's implausibly hard to make up one for every research paper.

its about respect, not about academic score tracking systems

No, plural can’t be deduced from how it is written.

"et alia" usually means "and others", but technically in Latin "alia" can be either plural neuter or singular female!