dummy it - Can "it" be used with plural subject?


Several years ago I heard of something called dummy subjects in high school. It was then stated that, for example, it is a dummy subject when it starts many instances of sentences, e.g.



It is rainy today.
It is hard to imagine how hard is to live alone.
It is not my university degree that matters here.



My question is if we can use it with plural subjects? For example in



If some think that in Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s works it is only social themes that matter and the writer is ignoring fictional arrays and artistic techniques, at least, endings of his stories show wrongness of this idea.



My question deals with the italicized part. If this usage is OK, can we also write they are social themes that matter? I mean can they also play the role of a dummy subject?



Answer



You have been taught correctly.


This is called the "existential it " or "dummy it ," it does not actually refer to the noun we see. It just stands for "the fact is that," or so.


As such, it does not need grammatical agreement (singular/ plural) with anything, it's always "it" as in "It is raining." or otherwise.



[EDIT]
Amended, thanks to Prof Lawler's answer.


This is a dummy it, but there is no "existential" it. … (T)his one is the it produced by the Cleft construction. … There is no plural for dummy it. In general, plural predicate nouns do not require plural subjects.


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