Autolyse

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bfotk
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Autolyse

I've seen a couple of procedures in which the autolyse takes place with flour and water only, before adding the yeast.  Here's Wikipedia's formulation:

"In bread baking, the term autolysis (or, more commonly, its French cognate autolyse) is best described as the hydration rest following initial mixing of only flour and water that occurs before kneading has fully developed the gluten; this simplifies the shaping process of the finished dough.[2] The term was coined by French baking professor Raymond Calvel."

Do the different approaches matter much?  Does the autolyse stage matter much at all?  (Certainly it's one of the less taxing ones...)