> it gives off incel vibes imo

One really should be careful making statements like these on the Internet. It's a stronger signal than people saying "male" and "female".

I've always found this to be such a pedantic hill to die on.

I don't think the author is an incel and it's pretty rude to throw out that kind of language for what's pretty clearly just a style choice.

I hear this commonly about using the words "male" and "female." I think it's unfair. For one thing, the military uses them frequently, and so would veterans. Another reason is that their meanings are age-agnostic which helps to emphasize the intent of the speaker--to differentiate on sex alone, not sex plus age.

Keep in mind that not everyone on the internet uses English as their first language and they might use words weirdly cause it resembles what they're used to