Oh, they all use version control.
It just looks like "conf_paper1.tex" "conf_paper3.tex" "conf_paper_friday.tex" "conf_paper_20240907.tex" "conf_paper_last_version.tex" "conf_paper_final.tex"
...
"conf_paper_final2.tex"
Oh, and the figures reference files on local dir structure.
And the actual, eventually published version, only exists in email back and forth with publisher for style files etc.