Inefficient and unwieldy, though.
Yes, it likely is. But it is how humans have identified locations since forever (minus the meters of course). But even Japan works on a similar system. The post office (and likely the police) know where everyone lives using a system that only they use. In Tokyo most streets don’t have names and you can’t really an “address” to take a cab to a particular location. “It’s so many blocks from such and such shrine” and you work your way in from there.
The Costa Rican system, such as it is, may baffle outsiders but the Ticos and Ticas seem to be able to work it pretty well. They do have GPS that they use to get to “the landmark” and then do the north, west, south system from there—they do seem to have a good handle on how far “200 meters” is. What’s really different is their reliance on landmarks that no longer exist. There’s a neighborhood in San Jose called “Coca Cola” from a plant that disappeared decades ago.