Marv-I usually agree with you; but when it comes to labeling products sold into a global market both the maker and the user are facing a legal swamp. And when it comes to large sheets of material labeling can be a real nuisance for the shop in the middle between the final customer and the material manufacturer.
About drill bits. I work with a lot of small drill bits and it is getting ever more difficult for me to see the markings on the shanks. Metric drills are seriously quarantined in my shop because I have no drill gauges in those sizes and if they are available from the EU are likely very expensive. I'm glad I can still read the vernier scale on my micrometers and control my aging fingers.
About the metric system. It was created by scientists and approved by logical lawyers. These are people who couldn't manufacture a ham sandwich if their life depended on it. And as far as logic is concerned; well, that is a one dimensional string of "it-then" statements. Useless in making stuff up to the point where we adopted computer controlled manufacturing processes.
So they gave us the meter and based it on a dimension extremely important to all of us: The varying distance between two imaginary entities, the Equator and the North Pole. That standard is on its second iteration (wavelength of a specific light emission); but that was before we observed the existence of gravity waves. This will all be very important when there is nothing left except me and ye and a box of chocolate bars. (so before we decide how to divide up the contents of the box we must measure the wavelength of Krypton light)
Then these great minds decided that physical measurements should have a numerical base of 10. This is a serendipitous and arguably near useless choice as it has only two integer factors. A base of 8, which would be a better choice, has 3 integer factors that form a natural binary progression. By far the most efficient choice for a number system and that which evolved in the English/American measurement system with its easy to visualize fractional divisions.
Lastly I want to comment on the evolution of the words "mils" and "tenths". These two are very relevant to measures most important to our conversations about what we do as machinists. They are just plain easier to deal with than "tenths of a millimeter", "hundredths of a millimeter" or "microns", which are well below the realm of most of our work.