Much like the Japanese rules, the English system makes little sense when taken outside of a historical context. Just look: 5280 feet to a mile? What on earth is a furlong anyway? 43,650 square feet to an acre? How could anyone find this useful?

Proponents of the metric system point out how simple it looks in comparison, after all, everything is in nice increments of 10! Not only that, but did you know they keep changing the English measurements? The foot they were using in North America in 1927 isn't the same as the one they use in 1983! That's not counting the fact that a survey foot is different from an international foot (nevermind the fact that all these differences usually work out to be about less than 1 inch per 10 miles). Sometimes I wonder how anyone is able to get anywhere traveling in feet. It might take someone years of study before they truly understand what they are measuring. Admittedly, it is nice that we have people who do study these things like surveyors, however even they argue about how things get measured!

Of course if you had to measure plots of land back before modern technology took hold, you might have done it with a surveying chain...in that case it might be useful mark off lengths of 10 chains (and call it a furlong). If you were marking off an area (like a plot for a city or a farm), you might take that furlong and then start measuring width with the same chain. For each chain of width, you would denote an acre. A furlong has the nice property of being exactly 1/8 of a mile. This means that if you have a 1 square mile parcel of land (8 furlongs x 8 furlongs), you can easily cut it in half (2 pieces of land measuring, 4 x 8). If you have to continue doing this you can keep cutting the pieces in half until you 64 total pieces of land that are 1 furlong x 1 furlong, and you will have never had to use a fraction or a number larger than 10 in a computation (not only that, but all of your final segments will be 10 acres!). If you were to try the same feat with a 1 square kilometer piece of land you would require larger numbers, fractions, or switching between 4 different units ( 1 kilometer/2 -> 5 hectometers/2 -> 25 decameters/2 -> 125 meters). It would appear the metric system is not devised to be practiced in one's head.

We also overlook the fact that the entire metric system of measurement is based measuring how far light in a vacuum will travel whilst simultaneously counting hyperfine transitions of a cesium atom (because We all keep that apparatus on hand to confirm the accuracy of our measurements...right? Clearly we should be teaching our children quantum mechanics prior to having them measure anything, how else could we expect them to understand?), instead of something simple the average width of a thumb (the basis for an inch) or length of a chain (66ft, or 1 cricket pitch if that's your game). So while the metric system might be nicer and cleaner for many technical calculations, for practical considerations, some find the "crazy" English system is more convenient because the numbers are cleaner. Realistically speaking, they both work virtually the same for 99% of what people do every day. Often one is easier just because it is what they have always done and it feels right.

I feel like this is the way a lot of people approach rulesets. The Japanese ruleset gets critcized as "too complex" because its minutiae are idiosyncratic and often historically related, yet many people use it for learning go and have no problems with it because they just play....you may just learn that a bent four is dead, much like a child "just learns" that a foot is 12 inches and there are 5280 feet in a mile. One's ability to play and enjoy the game is not crippled by not knowing the specifics. If you don't worry about it and just use it, it's not really a big deal. If you are ever in a situation where there is a dispute and these little differences matter, you can refer to an expert (For go a rules referee, for measurements a surveyor). AGA rules are perhaps a bit more thoughtout in a modern precision context, however they ultimately rely on a premise that is not practically measurable in a real situation (I would highly doubt that 99% of players in a tournament would be able to properly enforce situational superko in a non-trivial >5 move cycle without temporarily suspending the game or having outside help).

In practice neither of these drawbacks for either side really matter, because we get by using what we're used to and develop shortcuts for the parts that matter (2.54 cm = approx. 1 inch, and fill dame with pass stones converts Japanese to AGA), the Earth keeps spinning even though we ignore the small stuff. Somehow millions of people manage to learn and use both the English measurement system and the Japanese rulesets everyday and not only don't worry about it, but may consider it a significant inconvenience when someone tries to change them. Go figure.

I guess when all's said and done I'd rather just kick back, enjoy some go, and have a pint (or 473ml if that's your thing).