They're not just placeholders though, because as you've pointed out tautologically (and perhaps by accident) that would be worthless. They're also an abbreviati

They're not just placeholders though, because as you've pointed out tautologically (and perhaps by accident) that would be worthless. They're also an abbreviation, a label, etc. If you're saying the value in pronouns is that you can guess someone's pronoun by looking at them, you're misguided. Alternatively, you can just use they/them/theirs all the time, and you'll always be right.