Does thousand mean the quantity itself or does it mean the decimal 1000?
In other words thousand = 1000 (dec) and 0x3E8 (hex). Are they both pronounced “thousand”? When someone says mix a thousand liters of glycol with ten kilograms of salt, both 1000 (dec) and 0x3E8 (hex) mean “thousand” each of something.
The only way to get around this is if every whole number on the number line had a unique name and could be represented by any numbering system.
Same question arises in binary - you could read "1000" as one thousand, but people are going to think you meant "whatever the base 10 quantity of 1000 is in binary" when what you actually meant was eight. It's easier to just always spell out anything that's not base 10.
If someone said to me 'one thousand base sixteen' I would think '=> 1000_16 => 0x1000'; certainly not that they were converting all numbers to base ten solely for the purpose of speech.
Thus, I agree with you, there's value in making digits beyond 9 pronouncable for higher bases (if dealing with them enough to make devising the system worthwhile of course).
Does thousand mean the quantity itself or does it mean the decimal 1000?
In other words thousand = 1000 (dec) and 0x3E8 (hex). Are they both pronounced “thousand”? When someone says mix a thousand liters of glycol with ten kilograms of salt, both 1000 (dec) and 0x3E8 (hex) mean “thousand” each of something.
The only way to get around this is if every whole number on the number line had a unique name and could be represented by any numbering system.