I'm not proposing the use of they as a singular pronoun. I'm proposing use of 'he' or 'she' which are actual english pronouns. To be perfectly honest the first time I heard someone say 'per' (In a recorded talk) it took me a good 5 minutes to figure out what was going on. Are users really offended by the use of gender in hypothetical situations?
There are many words in the English language that have different
meanings, and subtle differences. The GNU standards are a set of
recommendation, and encouragements where part of the document is on
how to write in a gender-neutral manner.
Singular "they" is just grammatically awkward and should be avoided,
where per/perse/etc work well both in text and in speech.