There are lots of weird factors in engineering anyway. We have different factors, but there are still factors. Besides, nobody is calculating this, they are measuring and that is just a matter of what label you put on the dial.
Most engineering in the US is done in metric units. Then marketing applies a metric to imperial conversion.
I suspect China does more engineering in imperial than the US, both in total an per capita: most things I buy made in America are all metric (cars are all metric except for parts designed in the 1960s and the adapter bracket to make them fit on a modern metric car). Most things I buy made in China are imperial. I don't really know for sure, but that is my impression of industry.
Torque to power is just (torque * RPM) / (some constant depending on the units inolved). With ft-lbs and horsepower, that constant is 5252; with N-m and kW, it's 9549. The only thing that changes is the constant.
The engineers who do that are using metric. Marketing might do this conversion, but they just plug it into a converter and have no reason to know anything more than bigger is better.
Most engineering in the US is done in metric units. Then marketing applies a metric to imperial conversion.
I suspect China does more engineering in imperial than the US, both in total an per capita: most things I buy made in America are all metric (cars are all metric except for parts designed in the 1960s and the adapter bracket to make them fit on a modern metric car). Most things I buy made in China are imperial. I don't really know for sure, but that is my impression of industry.