of course it's cheaper to maintain and build smaller pools... i meant 25 Meters instead of 25 yards... i trained in 25 meter pools until i got grown upI suspect that 25 yard pools are much cheaper to construct and maintain than Olympic size pools, and that's a consideration for public high schools. I think that even most college pools are 25 yards rather than 50.
USA sticks to yards because we don't widely recognize the metric system. Sometimes I wish we did, sometimes I'm glad we don't.
Edit: Obviously we "recognize" the metric system exists, but if you asked most Americans "What's longer? 1500 meters or a mile?" they wouldn't know the answer with certainty.
Your point about MacNeil is valid. I think the same can be said about Dressel's turns, which are spectacular. His finishing stroke is not the best though - he always looks "long" to me - and I wonder if training yards but competing meters has anything to do with that.