SabreDriver
Pride has nothing to do with it. The military, who owns the airspace, dictated that RVSM would have to be compatible with metric levels which is what drove the current system of RVSM. I fly there enough, I don't like it but it's their train set. Then again, in a biz jet most enroute is above FL401.
Fellow Sabre Driver, F-100 and Sabre 65
GF