that the reason those tana’im and all the earlier great people were not referred to as rabbi is because they were so great they did not need a title, as their name alone elicits respect.
That’s correct… but that was no longer true by Ben Azzai’s and Ben Zoma’s time. They were contemporaries of Rabbi Akiva (who clearly used the title “Rabbi”).
The reason Ben Zoma and Ben Azzai are not known as Rabbi Shimon (they were both named Shimon) Ben Azzai/Ben Zoma is because they did not earn semicha.
The Wolf
The Wolf