Is there a spec reference for the fact that the year suffix should not count documented? Does it never count or would it count if the style explicitly uses the variable (vs. inserted by disambiguation)?

This behavior mirrors citeproc. I found nothing specific in the spec but it kind of makes sense to me. Some style like APA use exactly the pattern of the test in date_YearSuffixImplicitWithNoDate, which I hoped to fix (but there is more wrong with that one).

E.g.:

<text term="no date" form="short"/>
<text variable="year-suffix" prefix="-"/>

This is printed if "issued" and "status" don't exist. Without this PR, the "no date" would never render.

In that case, thanks!