A cat with deaf human parents would have never learned this, or would have learned that meowing doesn't work and to try something else.
They almost all independently chose to pick the signature one we associate with cats, just for us
Our cat manages to make a noise that sounds like a young child screaming "mum" - it really upsets my wife.
It's also worth noting that kittens and their mothers communicate heavily via meows even when no humans are present. Food-begging is a pretty straightforward association from there.
You're right that meows are by default how cats talk with their kittens. They also bring kittens dead or nearly dead prey, as the first step in teaching them how to hunt. That they choose to use the same idioms with us I think constitutes an eloquent comment on how clever they find us.