>>535870739
>Bruh they didn't even stamp numbers on SPARTAN IIs when there were hundreds of them.
Because that was Bungie's design decision. Chief's Infinite design is the best he's ever looked, and I say this as someone who hated 4, despised 5, and barely stomached Infinite as an actual game. Chief's redesign is like one of five intelligent decisions they've made. Again, the UNSC is meant to be a prim and proper sci-fi military, and are displayed to be very grounded in how they operate. Their spacefaring ships are glorified giant guns with boosters attached to them, because that's the most efficient design. Humans still use ballistic weapons, because it's 90% as good as every other option they developed yet costs a fraction of the price.

Plastering 117 onto Chief's chest isn't some ground shattering decision, it fits precisely into Bungie's intention with the UNSC. It's a human-centric backup for when tech fails.