I've also personally never understood the slash syntax. Since one word requires the "s" and the other doesn't, shouldn't we use parentheses like when words may

I've also personally never understood the slash syntax. Since one word requires the "s" and the other doesn't, shouldn't we use parentheses like when words may or may not be plural? e.g. "(s)he" like you might say "socket(s)" or "Unix(es)"? Moot point if it doesn't solve the issue of it still being binary, I guess.