I have zero interest in being touched that way by a guy.
But I have to say, having probably watched thousands of videos in my time, there absolutely is a stylistic difference between male and female 'lers. At least 90% of the time, the males poke and stroke harder, whereas the females do it lighter.
It's especially obvious in the old RealTickling clips, where there would be girl-on-girl for most of the video, then at the end, the guy moves in to "show her how it's done," and the 'lee freaks out to a degree that wasn't happening earlier in the video.