I'm standing my ground on optimal base, but I will absolutely be using those hex pronounciations in future

The "dividing things by two" argument makes a lot of sense! And if you need ⅓ and ⅕, they aren't too bad either: .5555 and .3333 repeating.

Sexagesimal (Base 60) is the way to go. Plenty of history behind it and can handle much larger numbers than decimal.