That's exactly why higher scales, on large scenes would help, just like that. Where 1000m would be 1km, or 1000km being 1Mm. It'd be similar to working in "smaller" scales having a higher range scale. For example in in megameters once you reach 1e+06 you're looking at 1,000,000 megameters, or 1e+12 meters. So you'd be able to mess with settings in a much easier fashion then being in scientific notation [starting] at 1e+04 in meters.
A division of scales probably would be easier, but I wonder if it would be more confusing, even for a returning author, than standard conventions.