When I was at microsoft, I campaigned hard that we should name windows releases after dog breeds. Apple did big cats, who wouldn’t love to download windows 10 golden retriever? No one wants windows 10 fall 2021 update for creators.
If it wasn't "Monterey" and was just MacOS 12 there would've been no confusion. I feel like it's always an exercise of looking up the code name to find the version whenever someone is like "Yeah, I'm on Big Sur" .... ok one sec, let me google what that even means.
iPhone 10, Galaxy S7, RX470, such product names are significantly easier to keep track of.
Regardless, numbers are easier to work with, easier to remember, and it's immediately apparent what's going on with them. "debootstrap focal target" is more difficult to remember than a hypothetical "debootstrap ubuntu 20.04 target" would be. In practice I have to consult a chart almost every time.
But as someone in the UK random californian landmarks are inpossible to remember.
Numbers are best. Years are fine. Names are... Cute but Impractical.