It used to tick me off, but except for inches, the whole thing is easier once you bother to think about it. There are some common references:
A meter is a little longer than a yard.
A kilometer is a little more than 1000 yards (10 football fields). So in field and track, a mile is measured in yards: 440 = 1/4 mile, 880 = 1/2 mile etc.
Water being the standard....A liter is about a quart. (two pints). Just like a fluid ounce of water weighs an ounce (a pint's a pound the world around)....a milliliter weighs one gram....hence a liter (1000 ml) of water weighs one kilogram (1000 grams).
Everything in metric is 1/10th or 10 times something...no whacked out multipliers like you said.
Yeah and I like that one metric ton is 1,000 kilograms instead of 2,000 pounds, and that it’s close enough to the non-metric ton (2204 lbs) that you don’t have to worry too much about which one you’re using. And it’s also equivalent to a cubic meter of water.