[heeton]

I’ve also stopped calling these soft skills.

It’s a comparison to “hard skills”, usually meaning technical skills.

And these interpersonal and communication skills are extremely hard. Calling them soft devalues anyone who has cultivated them.

[pc86]

You can stop calling them soft skills if you want but all that's going to do is make it so nobody knows what you're talking about when you call them something else.

[motohagiography]

they're typically called "durable skills" outside tech. it reinforces the idea that they are portable between domains and are themselves things to be developed and practiced.