I disagree. A meter is a reasonable approximation of most adults's step length, but a foot is not.
If instead of putting your feet in front of each othr you actually take a step you should get closer to 1m.
(most people I met measure distances with 1m = 1step when playing european football, for example and you have to be at X meters from the ball por something)
It seems more practical (and certainly faster) than to measure the distance to "approximately 30 feet" by putting one foot just in front of the other 30 times.