"TERRAIN, TERRAIN! whoop whoop PULL UP!" -- the makers of the Terrain Avoidance and Warning System (TAWS) thought that this extra information was useful. Maybe the timing is different or maybe it's just cultural.
Yeah, it's both an earlier development, and it also doesn't really apply fully. In almost all modern aircraft, aural alerts are only used for very dangerous situations that require immediate pilot action. However, there are still a lot of "abstract" sounds used, either where it occurs often (like autopilot disconnect) or where spelling it out isn't needed (like a generic warning or caution tone to bring attention to the display that describes the error)
