When my oldest was seventeen, he was constantly jiving about his need to be "treated like a man".
One night, his GFs father came uninvited to my home for the purpose of dragging my son outside to treat him like a man by kicking his ass (he had forbidden his daughter to date my son).
I stood between them, acting like an (embarrassed) man, and eventually the GFs dad left without the satisfaction of kicking my son's ass.
In the aftermath, my son was crying his eyes out, and I got to ask the magic teenaged boy question, "OK, son, how does it feel to be treated like a man?"
You’re a good father. Both fathers did the right thing, and I'll bet that your son learned a bunch of stuff that night!
There are two sides to this, and you know them both.
I just have one son and one daughter, so my experience isn’t as rife with lessons as is yours!
(My parents raised 2boys and 4girls, too.)