Words brought into English can use English pluralisations, so you're not wrong if you say octopuses. I think Grammar Girl had a take on this maybe 7 or even 8 years ago by now. These days, I can't see myself getting worked up about it for the sheer fun of being pedantic like I used to.
It's not octopuses that octopodes corrects, it's octopi. Octopi is a Latin pluralization, and since the word is Greek and us to i isn't specifically American, I agree with you that octopuses is fine but not that octopi is fine.
Octopi is also correct. If anything, more correct than octopodes by virtue of popularity. Mismatching the language to the suffix does not a fake word make!
The word octopus is a classical Greek word that comes to English via Latin. The Greek plural is octopodes, the Latin plural is octopi. But we don't speak Latin or classical Greek. We speak English. Because octopus is the English word for octopus it follows the English rules for pluralization, which is to add "s" or "es" to the end of the word. Cases can be made why octopi and octopodes could be technically correct, but for English speakers octopuses is the most correct.
Yeah, I did something for work where I had to study up about it and instead of being angry it's just kind of a fun fact. I don't actually mind what people say, I think everyone understands what you mean regardless.
Octopuses is correct if you're referring to many different species of octopus. Octopi would be correct if you're referring to a cluster of one species of octopus.
Great question. When I hear people I think that’s used to draw attention to common relevant traits “people of England” for example. Persons is more a group of less related individuals or at least with less relevant similarities “persons of interest” for example
I mostly write 'indexes' these days when I'm not on autopilot, in part since not all of my coworkers have a high English proficiency and just following the normal +(e)s plural makes it easier. My brain really does not want me to write 'matrixes' however (and indeed, my dictionary in this browser is fine with 'indexes' but not 'matrixes'). I also try not to be pedantic with verbs whose irregular forms have become less common than their "incorrect" (at least when I was taught) forms. "Shined" being one of these, but I am sure there are more.