Where are you from? In the UK I'd say it's uncommon but positive. The abbreviation 'boff' is mildly perjorative, but I haven't heard that since school (i.e. 'grade school'), I suppose since at some point around puberty it stops being insulting to say someone's clever.
On the contrary, there are uses of "boffins" for "tech" articles in U.K. tabloids such as The Sun, The Daily Star, and The Daily Mirror within the past 3 days alone.
It looks like the request from 2023 fell on deaf ears.
