I think I’m questioning the idea that portraying a bearded hipster is portraying a “dude” specifically, rather than a “man” (more formal than the reported article) or even just a “hipster” (would be a repetitive use.) Was it that they could not come up with another synonym and the NYT made an exception, or does the NYT generally allow a term like that now?

I’m also curious about whether the NYT has changed its policy of adopting a source’s language style to report on it (just for reporting, as an op-ed has different standards and already allows this.) That seems like a new development, but I’m not a daily reader of the whole newspaper.