Discrete vs. discreet

The English language is such a strange and wonderful – and many-headed beast. A gazillion English words have more than one meaning so I’m not sure why we have two different spellings for the two different meanings of discrete/discreet. Why couldn’t we just have a discrete spelling for the word? Is it because that wouldn’t be discreet enough? For me, discretion is the better part of orthography. Or maybe it should be “discreetion” is the better part.