The issue when it comes to hollow knight discussions is always that people default to using male pronouns for the knight when even the game agrees THE KNIGHT HAS NO GENDER none of the vessels do. Hornet is referred to explicitly as "The Gendered Child" because she is literally the only one of the pale kings offspring to have a gender.
The entire point of making a Hallow Knight was for it to be free of those kinds of concepts so the radiance couldn't get a hold.
Now obviously the hallow knight failed perhaps a bit of pride or something got in there but not enough for something this complex.