My hot take: there’s no such thing as “singular they” because you don’t need a special case for using plural pronouns with a single person; the basic usage already allows that. The plural pronouns refer to a group of people of any size. That includes a group of size 1.

A group of only one person is still a group of people.

That’s why it has always been correct to refer to a single person using the plural pronouns; you’re not directly referring to the person but rather to the group consisting of just that one person.

The reason this confuses people isn’t because the usage is incorrect but rather because what they were taught is incorrect.

People are taught that plural pronouns only refer to more than one person and that has always been wrong.

To see why that’s wrong, consider what happens when the size of the group is neither exactly one or more than one. For example if the group is actually empty or if you don’t know how many people are in it.

In both those cases you need to use the plural pronoun.

If the plural pronouns are a valid choice for both a group of size zero and a group of size two, then it would be ridiculous to argue that they are not a valid choice for a group of size one.

Every single person who complains that “they” is weird has, without the slightest wisp of a shadow of a doubt, said something along the lines of “yeah their coat is just over there” or “I think they were saying that…”. They can already do it, and it’s not hard, they just really wanna hate.

The singular "they" isn't even the first time English has specifically appropriated a plural pronoun for the singular for the sake of social respect!!!

We don't even use the second person singular "thou" anymore, we just use "you" for both of them!

Are they very tall?

"They did a great job on the last project. They are a valuable member of the team"

Only weirdos talk to tits, I, as a gentleman, always address each individually (by their preferred pronouns ofc).

/s

I have (begrudgingly) gotten used to "singular they". I accept that I am not an authority on how language is used, and this is how the language has evolved. I'd have preferred a separate singular non-gendered pronoun, but I wasn't consulted because, again, not an authority on the subject. It is fine, I will adapt (and have already done so to some degree).

HOWEVER, I still have beef with what happened to "literally" and will bring it up any time semantic shift is the subject of conversation.