I read the article last night, very interesting.
When I plunged into speaking Welsh, in Wales, as an obviously total beginner, nobody gave a damn when I mixed up ‘ti’ and ‘chi’. No-one as much as mentioned it. On the contrary, I won respect for trying to speak the native tongue.
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I believe only very elderly folk are likely to feel they need to give permission to be ‘ti’, people older than me, as I was raised to ‘chi’ anyone even only a little bit older - even, as I grew older, contemporaries if they were just met. In those days, it was polite to be formal until given permission to use first/given/Christian name and ‘ti’ came with that! Now, everything is much more informal!
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I’m sure that’s true in real life, but I notice on RaR, people are very correct, and there is a fair amount of "chi"ing (eg kids to parents and teachers, Philip or the hairdressers to the customers, and almost everyone to Mr Lloyd).
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I can’t do italics on my ipad, too cackhanded, but I, stress ‘I’ would say ‘chi’ to Mr. Lloyd! If you say ‘Mr’ you say ‘chi’!
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If you say ‘Mr’ you say ‘chi’!
That’s pretty much what I think.
When I started learning Welsh - I addressed my Llangadog mother as “ti” - a mistake I never made again. 
A local friend of long Welsh heritage addresses her elderly father as “ti” and her younger mother as “chi”. Hope that helps. 
I’ve said this elsewhere but I “chi” mother-in-law. We get on very well, so it’s not a distance thing. She uses “chi” with her dad, so that’s why I say it to her, her Dad and her sister. However, Emma uses “ti” with her. I really struggled with this after bwtcamp last year because you “ti” everyone in the group. Then this year I had to think not to use “chi” with some people I naturally would have, because the context would have been wrong. I’d want to use “chi” with anyone older, thanks to Emma’s mum, but I don’t tend to. (Wow, that was wordy! Sorry 
)
Summary: I use “chi” with my mother-in-law
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