If I understand your point correctly the difference is that the D74 was designed as a ham radio by a company that has division that specializes in ham radio separate from the divisions that support Land Mobile Radio.
Ham radio operators have always thought in terms of frequencies not channels. Even repeater "channels" aren't, they are simply a frequency with an offset. In a different area the same frequency used by a repeater could have a different offset. They are pretty much standardized these days, but nothing is set in regulations, the default offsets are "more what you’d call ‘guidelines’ than actual rules". It wasn't until the 60M band was opened for hams that we had a band that used actual defined channels rather than just frequencies.
Everything I've seen from the Chicom radios indicates that they were designed by people used to working with Land Mobile Radio, CB (including FRS) and Public Safety radios, which are channelized. The end users in those services usually don't have a clue what frequency they are actually using. Baofang and others simply modified their radios to work on amateur bands, but their advertising and what documentation I've seen makes me doubt they have many folks that know anything about ham radio, or really care.
