On the definition of the Hausdorff distance $\newcommand{\dist}{\mathrm{dist}\,}$
Let $M$ be a metric space and $\emptyset\neq A,B\subset M$ bounded closed subsets. The Hausdorff distance is defined as $$h(A,B)=\max\{\dist(A,B),\dist(B,A)\},$$ where $$\dist(A,B)=\sup_{x\in A}\inf_{y\in B}d(x,y).$$
Why do we define $\dist(A,B)$ in this way? Is't it possible to replace the supremum by the infimum in the definition of $\dist\!$, that is, define $$\dist_{\mathrm{new}}(A,B)=\inf_{x\in A}\inf_{y\in B}d(x,y).$$
What is the impact of this 'new' definition on the 'Hausdorff distance' given by $$h_{\mathrm{new}}(A,B)=\max\{\dist_{\mathrm{new}}(A,B),\dist_{\mathrm{new}}(B,A)\}?$$

Here's my intuition on how you could have invented the Hausdorff distance. Hopefully it helps.
You want a metric that tells you how far two compact sets are from being the same. And since these sets happen to be subsets of a metric space, you ought to define your metric in terms of the distances between the points of $A$ and $B$.
Suppose $A\ne B$. Then either there is a point in $A$  that is not in $B$, or there is a point in $B$ that is not in $A$ (or both).
Let's say there is an $a\in A$ with $a\not\in B$. How far is $a$ from being in $B$? Well, the least you have to move $a$ to get it into $B$ is the distance to the closest point in $B$, which is $\inf_{b\in B} d(a,b)$. So that's the distance from $a$ to $B$, which we might as well call $d(a,B)$. Observe that if $a\in B$ then $d(a,B)=0$, and because $B$ is compact, if $a\not\in B$ then $d(a,B)>0$.
Now there are lots of points $a\in A$, some of which may be in $B$, and some may not. As long as there exists any $a\not\in B$, that is, any $a$ such that $d(a,B)>0$, we want to know about it. So we ought to take the supremum: $d_1(A,B)=\sup_{a\in A}d(a,B)$. This also means that every point in $A$ is at most $d_1(A,B)$ away from $B$.
Finally, $d_1(A,B)$ only tells us if there is a point in $A$ that is far from $B$. We want the Hausdorff distance $d_H(A,B)$ to be large if either there is a point in $A$ far from $B$, or there is a point in $B$ far from $A$. So we define it to be the maximum of both $d_1(A,B)$ and $d_1(B,A)$. And we're done.
