One could just at easily claim that because the inch was originally the width of a man's thumb, it is easier to make rough estimates with, and therefore superior to centimetres.
Exactly. Most Imperial measurements are based off such logic.
Everyone thinks the mile is weird for being 5280 feet- and for good reason, it was never
meant to be a measurement of feet.
It's a measurement of time.
Specifically, the distance a man should be able to walk in fifteen minutes (in good terrain).
Which is a good number to measure by for a
working system. That is a number that will tell you how fast armies are moving. That is a number that will tell you the amount of food you need to carry when travelling.
Imperial is a system meant for
visualization.
Hell, even Fahrenheit and Celsius (neither of which are actually imperial or metric) adhere to this logic.
Fahrenheit: 0F- About as cold as even a very well protected person will be able to handle outside. 32F freezing. 98 human skin. 100+ increasingly dangerous. Boiling water- 212 (because what human actually
cares- this is far above the point where it matters).
All numbers between 0 and 100 are
important numbers for humans to know, with a good scale between. A great system if the most important thing is human comfort and safety.
Celsius: 0C- Freezing point of water. 36.5ishC- Human skin temperature. 100C- Boiling point of water.
All
important numbers for human life are between -20 and 40. It's a great system if the most important thing in your life is the behavior of water. A terrible system for human comfort and safety concerns.
The Metric System has well-defined measurements for basically everything, while the measures for many things in the Imperial system are obscure at best (can you tell me the Imperial measurement for mass instead of weight?
The pound, actually. It serves as a valid mass measurement. No different than the gram in that regard.
Incidentally, as a sign that metric goes too far into 'scientific instead of working value'... the kilogram is used by most people as the
main unit of measure, rather than the gram. Because 2.2 pounds is
far more useful for daily life than .03 ounces. Only drug dealers and drug manufacturers measure anything in grams.
Though there's also the slug. Because why wouldn't we name a mass system after ammunition? But that's like 32lbs and nobody pays attention to it.