I don’t really identify with Neal per se. I think we can all relate to many aspects of various characters. I relate to his desire to put his past behind him and make his own way. I even relate to his dialect change as I’ve had that experience of wanting to fit in and assimilate with where I was.
We all do this, don’t we? I’m sure in real life we don’t run around saying “my feels” and “OTP” and whatever other handy terms we have picked up in fan culture yet it becomes natural for some of us to use these phrases when discussing here.
The same thing applies but also to pronunciation. Maybe they’ll explain Neal like a reverse Eliza Doolittle who actively learned to shed his more refined speech for more authentic street sound so he wouldn’t stick out.
In any case I never had a hard time with the concept that Bae IS Neal. I think it has been showing more this season of course, but the writers have just been dribbling out his story, because they tied it to a lot of the deeper mysteries of the season.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass