Use case or problem
Let’s assume we attend a meeting and we do not yet have a “People note” for one of the attendees - but expect we might in the future. So within our Meeting note 2024-03-04.md we put:
# Meeting Note 2024-03-04
[[John Example]] gave an update on his thesis.
A few weeks later, we finally create the note Example, John.md with
---
alias: ["John Example"]
---
Interests: Biology
Meeting Note 2024-03-04.md with our [[John Example]]-Link will not appear in the backlinks! Had we not used a link earlier, but instead just mentioned him (- John Example gave an update on his thesis) we would have found that under unlinked mentions. So by trying to make a connection more explicit for a future use, we actually prevent Obsidian from reminding us of that connection.
Proposed solution
There have been quite a few FRs on directly linking to Aliases. I am not sure about my own thoughts on that feature. Nonetheless, when a link points to an Alias, I am convinced such an explicit connection needs to be visible (and possibly even more so than an unlinked mention). At the very least “Unlinked mentions” should contain [[Alias]]-Links.
Related feature requests (optional)
Loosely related to Can't search for a file/note based on its alias - #5 by nicolas.lienart
And of course, related to all the Feature Requests on direct linking to an Alias, like this one: Link to Alias of a note directly and showing in backlinks and graph view