Are <figure> and <figcaption> ignored by search engine crawlers?

Question

It is said that search engine crawlers would ignore heading titles (h1~h6) in <figcaption> because html5 outline algorithm doesn't parse them.

So we should avoid using <figure> or <figcaption>. Is this true?

Update 1: Google does index h1~h6 in figcaption.

Update 2: To get the title more clear, it comes from an opinion:

1. Googlebot uses html5 outline algorithm to parse content
2. That algorithm ignores heading in figcaption
3. So we should not use h1~h6 in figcaption

Answer 1

Any HTML element should be used for any application where it makes sense to do so according to the HTML specification without regard to SEO or how search engines use it. Doing so never does any harm and, at most, does good for the browser and the user.

Any advice otherwise is pure hogwash and that web site or person should be ignored into perpetuity.