Editorialization serves a valuable role of making writing better. IMO, language that is more inclusive is better than language that is less inclusive. Keeping needlessly gendered phrases around simply because they're a "set phrase" doesn't serve any compelling interest.
Language evolves. You can fight the ocean with a rake, or you can be supportive of changes that make language better for your friends and neighbors.
I have no problem with calling a waitress a server or whatever, but when I clicked on this title I did spend some time thinking about the lost euphoniousness and wondering whether there is a special masculine quality to "last man standing". It sounds like it might come from some knockdown game that women would not play. Google says boxing.
There is nothing generic in the sentence "last man standing". It's referring to one person, who is, in this case, a man.
The argument, which at least makes sense, is that a "Chairman", even if he's male, should be a "Chairperson" because the office is not male, and therefore the title shouldn't be gendered.
That just doesn't apply here. "A Chairperson" makes sense, "a last man standing" doesn't.
"Last person standing" is also something you could say, but the title didn't, and there is no cause to 'correct' it, because it isn't wrong.
1. This is the last man standing, but there are women still standing. In which case there are still persons providing this service and it is not newsworthy.
2. This is a legacy saying from a period where only men could be involved in business enterprises. There may have been women running such businesses, but they are not worthy of record.
If not 1, then the correct phrase is “last person standing”.
The issue is not whether the last person standing is male or female. The issue of “last X standing” is about all the Xs except the last one.
Honestly, I’d be fine just treating this (and similar) as skunked terms. Last man standing is gendered and old fashioned. Last person standing is clunky and weird.
“‘Don’t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.’”
Language evolves. You can fight the ocean with a rake, or you can be supportive of changes that make language better for your friends and neighbors.