I tend to use "folks" for my usual gender-neutral collective pronoun.
I don't think "dude" is a real issue, is it? Here in Australia, I'll happily use mate for any gender, and I often hear other genders do the same.
Of course, we also tend to unnecessarily shorten (or lengthen) people's names here, and those always get used:
- Darren = Daz or Dazza
- Josh = Josho
- Dan = Danno or Danny-boy
- Adam = Ads
- [first name] Thompson = Tommo
- [first name] Johnson - Jonno
Even our Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is Albo. You get the idea... ;)