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Quote from MidnightPlat >>

I think this may be one among a number of reasons some contemporary TTRPGs have opted for "range bands" instead of specific measurements, and I'm sure there are 5e variants out there that have experimented with it, but I think the design team producing the game is overwhelmingly based in the English measurement system, so we have what we have.  

 Maybe. I'd assumed that it was due to it being simpler. The two other systems I play uses zones, and it really speeds up combat. Like, an unbelievable amount. It doesn't have to deal with the detail-centric spells that 5e does though. With the detailed spells, you have to work with measurements,  but since they don't have that same baggage so zones can work well, zones are much better than feet and inches. I wouldn't alter them to reintroduce measurements for the sake of it.

You're probably right that it's not a conscious end-run around measurement standards, but "zones" as a concept in its simplification of things, makes things simpler in taking "measurement" out of play as well.  The trade off, I suppose having not played a lot of zone combat games, is the abstraction of combat so that a given zone functioning weapons and combat magics, range isn't really a consideration in prep anymore (though I'd say that a lot of 5e combat magics and missile do have a sort of "zones" homogeneity or at least range categories, not completely homogenous but enough to recognize some design principle).