I work in steel fabrication, so design through to completed work is my pay packet
Everything we manufacture from major steel work to a 'kit shed' all relies on even numbered bolted connections, yeah even those kit sheds that are tek-screwed together use even numbered screwed joints.
There are other factors that come into the equasion such as clamping area and rotational forces but in 99.9% of designs we have to have engineered are all even numbered bolted joints, I cant actually recall ever using an odd numbered connection


With my front shroud plate, the lowest bolt in the pic has become the 'hinge point', this places a leverage load on the two other bolts.....
Obviously they wont sheer but they will add undue pressure to the weakest part of the connection which in this case is the timber sub-frame, and hence the movement I now have, this movement is "wearing" at the timber holes.....
My plan is to enlarge the clamping area over what it currently is, and by fitting a plate to the nuts side of the timber sub-frame I should dramatically increase the 'grip' the fitting has... this plate will be the same size and shape as the actual fitting
(thankfully there's a good supply of stainless sheet in my shed, this is one of a few fittings that will be re-worked... stay tuned)