all encodings are arbitrary, to some degree. this scheme of using hierarchical partitioning gives two shortcoming: degenerate area at poles and variable area at fixed precision. using raw degrees doesn't.
why is the former preferred than the latter by mappers?
it can't be just 'because it's letter and not numbers' because, as demonstrated above, that's just encoding data in memoizable forms, which doesn't depend on the choice of the mapping scheme.
being able to visually compare codes also isn't enough of a differentiator, since nearby places would have nearby encoding even in a raw "latitiude/longitude to base-32" scheme, and if it's important that variation is on the least important digit one could just encode lat:long bits interleaved, so that the least significant bits of each are rightmost.
the question I have is not about the encoding, as shown it's easy to create an encoding with the desired characteristics that uses the degrees by themselves without the partitioning and its issues, the question is why use these area based system with all the deformation they have instead of properly encoded degrees, what's the benefit to cartographers etc.
why is the former preferred than the latter by mappers?
it can't be just 'because it's letter and not numbers' because, as demonstrated above, that's just encoding data in memoizable forms, which doesn't depend on the choice of the mapping scheme.
being able to visually compare codes also isn't enough of a differentiator, since nearby places would have nearby encoding even in a raw "latitiude/longitude to base-32" scheme, and if it's important that variation is on the least important digit one could just encode lat:long bits interleaved, so that the least significant bits of each are rightmost.
the question I have is not about the encoding, as shown it's easy to create an encoding with the desired characteristics that uses the degrees by themselves without the partitioning and its issues, the question is why use these area based system with all the deformation they have instead of properly encoded degrees, what's the benefit to cartographers etc.