This is analogous to saying that customary units aren't better in an absolute sense than metric units, which is obviously true--driving through Jersey, I'm not

This is analogous to saying that customary units aren't better in an absolute sense than metric units, which is obviously true--driving through Jersey, I'm not going to insist that the gas station attendant give me 10 liters of gasoline, because the metric system is "just better." OTOH, it's stupid to encourage people to keep using customary units because "everyone should decide which units are best for themselves." Getting literal again, if you think static typing is a PITA, you probably haven't used a modern language with type inference. There is really no downside to it anymore.