Eli5: Why do you use “they” for non-gendered speech instead of “it”?

Question

I’m not a native speaker, but as far as I understood, for singular objects and animals “it” was used. Why use “they” for individual people then?

In: 1400

Answer 1

“Where did John go?” “It went to the store.”

Doesn’t sounds right, makes John sound like an object. In english we would say “it give off some real Buffalo Bill vibes calling people it”.

“Where did John go?” “They went to the store.”

Clearly a person, clearly John, who else would it be in this context.

Now using He, or She would also work. No one really uses the same one every time, some people use He and She almost always and only “they” for groups, but lot’s of people use a combination for singular people without realizing. Even the word “We” can be used in place of “I”, and has been used that way for awhile.