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Some interesting observations here.
I am a machinist by trade and when I did my time in the 70's it was all manual and all imperial and it wasn't until the mid 80's that I saw my first metric machines and NC machines. NC is not to be confused with CNC. Numerical Controlled machines in the 80's required manual programming using a punch tape. It was so high tech in those days.
I think metric is so much easier to deal with than imperial measurements. So, in my view you still have a legacy of imperial through oldies like me. It doesn't help that the big market of the US still uses imperial and isn't likely to change.
Why you can get a mix of both metric and imperial in the same instruments is also probably a legacy of the imperial size standards were just too hard for manufacturers to change to metric. Just think if they suddenly changed these sizes to metric, your accessories would no longer fit. Do you fancy having to buy a whole new set of accessories?
I still use metric and imperial and constantly swap between using the two, and am comfortable in using either, and sometimes at the same time.
So, I think it will be a long time before it changes, if ever.
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