The meter - while arbitrary as a UNIT of measurement - is defined. It is the length light will travel in a vacuum in 3.33ns ish. Whereas the unit of happiness has no such definition and varies from person to person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_redefinition_of_the_SI_ba...
While you need „second“ to define the „meter“, the former is not derived from other units but from an observation of nuclear reactions in Caesium.