Metadata for taxonomy term generates more pages?

I have a custom taxonomy term, for example:

taxonomies:
  author: "authors"

When I serve/build my site, I am told 18 pages were generated.

If I add metadata to a specific term, for example, I add a markdown file:

content > authors > john-doe.md

I am subsequently told that 20 pages were generated.

When I build my site and look at the site map I notice there are repeated urls, for example https://www.baseurl.com/authors/ is shown twice.

I assume this is because hugo is building both the content pages and also the taxonomy pages. If I include an index.md in the content > authors directory and set it to headless or remove authors from the list of taxonomies from config, this issue does not occur.

What the best approach to accomplish what I am doing. I read the section on the website, but it did not mention anything about page duplication.

Can anyone advise on the best approach for adding metadata to a taxonomy term?

Thank you.

Note: although I am being told more pages are being generated, I seemingly end up with the same amount of pages on build, I am guessing any duplicates are getting overwritten