That’s obviously not what I’m talking about.

Not really that obvious. The imperial system is not used in base 12. It’s used in base 10 like everything else, therefore, if it were consistent with its units (which it isn’t) it would be more like 12 -> 144 -> 1728.

Since changing how we count is honestly not realistic, the prospect of having to deal with a system that’s not based on 10 is kinda scary.