From what I understood, the US Navy also factored regulator performance into the equation and the US Navy chose the ascent rate of 60 feet per minute based upon a working split between the speed a scuba diver wanted to ascend vs. the speed at which hard hat diving tenders wished to hoist.
While the recreational agencies adopted US Navy diving practices then began to change recommendations to protect deco weenies and the lowest common denominator form of diver, agencies such as GUE and UTD base their recommendations for recreational diving on narcosis, decompression modeling, and equipment performance related to diving gases.