>We have centimeter (10 mm) then decimeter (100mm)

Does anyone actually use those? I think I would throw up a little in my mouth if I saw either of those on a mechanical drawing.

Answer that question and you'll get the whole impetus for logarithmic scales.

Everyday necessity. The gap between mm and m is too large, there are many things in daily life that are better expressed in cm. SI units must strike a balance between three factors: not having so many denominations nobody can remember them; not having so few denominations that using them adds too much wordiness to daily life (150mm or 0.15m are wordier than 15cm); and a degree of familiarity with the everyday units people used before metric, to smooth the transition and encourage adoption.