Keyword variations and misspellings - do I need to target separately?

[smallcompany]

By now, I would think that search engines like Google would figure this more than I see in the results.

For example:

bl-ue wid-get is the phrase and product name
blue widget is very common among people and in no way can be replaced by anything but the original name (phrase). It's 100% related to that.
blue wid-get is used as well, again, totally related to the original name and nothing else.

The authoritative site is where it should be - #1

But non-authoritative sites vary, and I see that those that specifically target "variations" do better than those that don't, but target the original name only.

This tells me that Google's algorithm is still more linear and 0101100 thing - manipulative.

What do you think about this and how do you deal with it?

Thanks

P.S.
I see other examples as well, confirming that going after variations and misspellings works.

[Whitey]

It's hard to say IMO as i only watch carefully a couple of verticals.

A few years back I would have said definitely " yes " . But I'm seeing Google's dictionary for related terms combining the popular mispellings with the correct spellings in several verticals that i watch. In these cases it doesn't seem to matter , target one and the other will be included.

Less popular mispellings seem to escape this - then it begs the question, do you want to apply effort to chase these.

[tangor]

There's work, and then there's work "it" to death... Whitey has it right. There are diminishing returns in chasing down all the keyword typos these days.