https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/29/gender.uk
> Miss and Mrs are marks of the old world, reminders of women's second-class status as wives-to-be (Miss) or simply wives (Mrs). If you are a woman who doesn't use Ms - particularly a woman under 30 who has never even thought of it - then ponder this: how do you want to present yourself to the world? Are you an appendage or an appendage-in-waiting? Don't be branded and marked by old-world convention. Let's kick against those fools at companies such as Atlantic Data. Let's put two fingers up to employers and bureaucrats who want to define us by our marital status. Choose Miss and you are condemned to childish immaturity. Choose Mrs and be condemned as some guy's chattel. Choose Ms and you become an adult woman in charge of your whole life.
It seems to me that the passengers themselves were selecting their own title.
However, HN is overwhelmingly male (and threads like these illustrate why it is likely to stay that way), so what is obvious elsewhere may not be obvious here.
I still say sir, mam, mister, and miss (Mrs is generally considered unneeded and overly formal) because I come from a culture that finds them not only to be appropriate but pretty standard, especially when dealing with strangers. You find that declaring them universally acceptable is wrong, but if you came to my state you'd also be equally wrong, and maybe rude.
I do understand that peoples attitudes over generations will change about words. That seems to be the natural evolution of languages, but it also seems we've never overtly adopted a system that deprecates language outside of outrage, which seems inappropriate in itself if you're getting angry with someone who is going out of their way, in their mind, to treat you with respect.
My family has an interesting habit of addressing mail to my children by these titles. I don't know why or when they started it, but I myself, was never addressed as Master, yet my son is.