I’ve only partially researched this, but I’m pretty sure it’s actually an ancient carry over from when NTSC changed to colour. Wikipedia says it switched from 60hz to 59.94 “to eliminate stationary dot patterns in the difference frequency between the sound and color carriers”. They just kind of kept doubling it and we ended up with these odd refresh rates, I’m guessing for NTSC TV compatibility.
I’ve only partially researched this, but I’m pretty sure it’s actually an ancient carry over from when NTSC changed to colour. Wikipedia says it switched from 60hz to 59.94 “to eliminate stationary dot patterns in the difference frequency between the sound and color carriers”. They just kind of kept doubling it and we ended up with these odd refresh rates, I’m guessing for NTSC TV compatibility.