I don't think "neat" has ever been "groovy". For me as an Australian it conveys a sense of a particularly American type of "squareness". It's almost never used here, nor in the UK I think. I've noticed that Bill Gates uses it a lot and he is not particularly a model of cool.

BTW, not saying don't use it. If that's who you are and that's how you speak, that's cool :)

I associate neat with two expressions: "neat and tidy", and "that's (pretty) neat" (positive exclamation about a way of doing something, or a solution to a problem)

We're reaching a point where all these are coming back, but only ironically for now and in small secluded pockets of the city. Haven't spotted any legit uses in the field as of yet.

"Neat" is now faint praise.

If your wife asks how she looks, don't say "ok," and if your coworker asks about their presentation, don't say, "it was neat."

This is pretty neat: https://youtu.be/Hm3JodBR-vs

Gen-Y'er, I say neat but mostly because I think it's funny to use the word neat.

I like using "neat" as well. Then again I'm in my forties ;)

I also like using "fantastic" instead of awesome and often get strange looks, but a bonus of being older is I don't give a crap!