Funny thing I was thinking about: I was visiting the UK back in 2015ish. As a tourist, I always like to check out both grocery stores and hardware stores. I was astounded to see the price of 2x4 lumber at that time, so much so that I took a picture.
Looking at that photo brings to mind another issue: metrication. Note that the size of those studs is given as 38mm x 89mm. Those are not nice, round numbers.
Years ago, when the U.S. started going bonkers with "soft" metrication (which is how you get studs with dimensions like 38mm x 89mm -- a 2x4 is 1-1/2 x 3-1/2, which works out to 38.1mm x 88.9mm) I proposed to someone, either in the lumber industry or in gummint, that if we were serious about metrication we should just change the size of our wood dimensional lumber to easy metric sizes. A 2x4 would become 40mm x 90mm. Piece of cake. The response I received was that it was simply impossible, because the size difference would mean that carpenters couldn't make anything fit in the field.
I'm old enough that when I started as an intern architect/drafter, a 2x4 measured 1-5/8" x 3-5/8". I was several years into my career when we came to work one day and found that we suddenly had to draw 2x4s at 1-1/2 x 3-1/2. The carpenters managed to adapt to that change without a whimper. Going to 40mm x 90mm would have been much less of a change.
1-5/8 x 3-5/8 = 41.275" x 92.075"
40 x 90
1-1/2 x 3-1/2 = 38.1mm x 88.9mm
