Me personally? I’ve become much less tolerant of sexist humor. Back in the day, cracking a joke at women’s expense was pretty common when I was a teen. As I’ve matured and become aware to the horrific extent of toxicity and bigotry pervading all tiers of our individualistic society, I’ve come to see how exclusionarly and objectifying that sort of ‘humor’ really is, and I regret it deeply.
I guess the point is, how sure are you that all the members of the groups you address using your “gender neutral” term feel equally included?
Maybe it depends on where you live but where I am I would be 100% sure that everyone feels included. If for some reason I wanted to single out the men I would use “boys”