5280 feet? Not a figure I've ever thought about. That's be 1760 yards multiplied by three I suppose - but who ever did that? But in any case miles are made up of half-miles and quarter miles and convenient stuff like that.

As for feet, I've got two of them, and they're each more or less one foot long, which is convenient when it comes to working out the rough length of say a piece of furniture.

Metric units weren't made up by people who were used to working with their hands.