Zhuyin was a KMT project and Pinyin was a CCP project. That is why Taiwan still teaches Zhuyin. I don't believe there was a standard phonetics system during the empire days. I could be wrong though and please correct me if I am.

Simplified Chinese is also a CCP project; a project that I personally don't really like, because I think the traditional characters look better and still has their roots coming from the hieroglyphs.