Here's a guess: It could be because of an emphasis on counting. Meaning, when counting, the significant, changing part of the numbers is the least significant f

Here's a guess: It could be because of an emphasis on counting. Meaning, when counting, the significant, changing part of the numbers is the least significant figure, while the higher portions (potencies of the numeric system) become soon redundant. There seem to be a cultural differences in languages regarding the range in which this seems to matter: while it's just the tens in English, this is the entire range up to 100 in German. However, even in German this counting range ends at 100 at which point we're probably dealing with numbers that had been accumulated previously.