I actually think if you said "closest" or "nearest" and Siri just gives you a list, then Siri has missed out on useful information. You can also say "Nearby McDonald's" to Google and get a list, versus "Go to the nearest McDonalds" and you'll get navigation.

There are all sorts of ways to handle this request, but Siri's is the laziest, and in doing so asks more of the user's attention. If you just say "McDonalds" to either voice assistant, you also get a list. From that perspective, it's as if Siri ignores any information that might be gleaned from the rest of your sentence.

Siri learns from us but we also learn from Siri, and we might find that some words don't matter. You mind as well just say "McDonalds" if Siri is going to ignore the rest.

It understands “take me to the closest” and doesn’t give you a list but “take me to the nearest..” does.

Reminds me of some of the chatbots that I use to make. No matter how hard I tried to test them, they always worked as expected. The minute someone else used it, it fell apart. Subconsciously, I knew what would work and what wouldn’t.

Yeah sure you rather have a list. Why not have it return a list of answers for every question that had a definite answer like this then? Options are better.