It’s not pandering, it’s taking an action that makes some people feel more comfortable at work. They aren’t doing anything to provide pleasure to the people asking, they are doing it to help reduce their pain.

I’ve spoken to multiple black Americans internally about this and they strongly associate “master” with slavery since members of their families where literally owned by people and had to call those people “master”.

Maybe it would matter to them less if the US had abolished slavery and made people of all color equal, but since we instead created racist policies that historically put non-whites at a disadvantage, I can see how they have a strong dislike for that word.