Useful is very subjective. Do you mean precise?

"To reduce by 10%" is, in English, the novel usage. It was apparently invented by essayist Richard Grant White in 1870. The original meaning of the word, "to destroy", is attested to 1663:

https://arnoldzwicky.org/2009/06/03/the-decimators/

It's hard to say that the majority of native speakers' usage is wrong, since right/wrong, to the extent that it's meaningful at all, is defined by popular usage.

The argument that's the traditional usage is more useful is stronger, but not obviously correct. It's more specific, and doesn't have tons of synonyms, but in the age of clickbait headlines, maybe another version of "destroy" is more useful than an oddly specific "eliminate 10% of".

Right this mentality of human language always loses out (I guess unless you're France?).

Literally now also literally means figuratively/virtually. Etc etc...