One point of defense for the imperial system I'll add, is that it's easier for uneducated people to do math with.

A lot of the imperial system revolves around counts of 12 and 16, it's dumb and overly complicated for a number of reasons but it makes sense for dumb math.

Let's say I'm measuring 2 feet, or 24 inches.

I can easily divide up 24 by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc.

If I have 20 CM and want to divide that up easily, I pretty much only have 2, 4, 5, and 10.

I'm not defending the Imperial system and Metric is better in so many ways. But this might help you realize how and why the imperial system was developed to be what it is, and why it was so useful for so long.