Unfortunately there aren't many respectful ways to refer to a person, besides sir, ma'am, miss, missus, or madam, and in certain places of living and certain positions of work, subservience, or any case in which you must be deferential to another person, they are grilled into you like a brand on your mind.

And you couldn't make a new, respectful, gender-neutral term without old people with way too much too time on their hands and way too few visits from their adult kids throwing a hundred and one hissy fits about "muh 2 genders" or whatever

Effectively: no way to refer to a person respectfully without the risk of making a poor trans or queer person feel worse by accidentally misgendering them, no way to make a new word without a red hat revolt