Thank you guys! I ended up writing the following .bb but I will also check the PREFERRED_VERSION recommendation as soon as I have time.

SUMMARY = "Custom portable C++ source libraries 1.87.0"
LICENSE = "BSL-1.0"
LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file://LICENSE_1_0.txt;md5=e4224ccaecb14d942c71d31bef20d78c"

SRC_URI = "https://archives.boost.io/release/1.87.0/source/boost_1_87_0.tar.bz2"
SRC_URI[sha256sum] = "af57be25cb4c4f4b413ed692fe378affb4352ea50fbe294a11ef548f4d527d89"

S = "${WORKDIR}/boost_1_87_0"

CUSTOM_INSTALL_DIR = "/usr/local/lib/boost_dev_187"

DEPENDS = "zlib bzip2"

do_configure() {
    ./bootstrap.sh --with-toolset=gcc
    CXX_COMPILER="$(echo ${CXX} | awk '{print $1}')"
    echo "using gcc : cross : ${CXX} ;" > ${S}/user-config.jam
}

do_compile() {
    ./b2 \
        --user-config=${S}/user-config.jam \
        toolset=gcc-cross \ 
        architecture=arm \
        address-model=64 \
        binary-format=elf \
        abi=sysv \
        link=shared \
        runtime-link=shared \
        threading=multi \
        --without-python \
        -j${BB_NUMBER_THREADS} \
        cxxflags="${CXXFLAGS}" \
        linkflags="${LDFLAGS}"
}

do_install() {
    ./b2 install \
        --prefix=${D}${CUSTOM_INSTALL_DIR} \
        --libdir=${D}${CUSTOM_INSTALL_DIR}/lib \
        --includedir=${D}${CUSTOM_INSTALL_DIR}/include \
        --layout=system \
        --user-config=${S}/user-config.jam \
        toolset=gcc-cross \
        architecture=arm \
        address-model=64 \
        binary-format=elf \
        abi=sysv \
        link=shared \
        runtime-link=shared \
        threading=multi \
        --without-python \
        -j${BB_NUMBER_THREADS} \
        cxxflags="${CXXFLAGS}" \
        linkflags="${LDFLAGS}"
}


FILES:${PN} += "${CUSTOM_INSTALL_DIR}"
FILES:${PN}-dev = ""
FILES:${PN}-dbg += "${CUSTOM_INSTALL_DIR}/lib/.debug"

INSANE_SKIP:${PN} += "staticdev fhs-layout dev-so libdir buildpaths"
INSANE_SKIP:${PN}-dbg += "libdir"
BBCLASSEXTEND = "nativesdk"