Complex numbers encode a specific and essential algebra, which is everywhere in nature. So do quaternions, and so on ad infinitum. Elementary field theories are

Complex numbers encode a specific and essential algebra, which is everywhere in nature. So do quaternions, and so on ad infinitum. Elementary field theories are often simply named by algebraic spaces they span. Plenty of algebras not thought of as numbers also map onto physical processes usefully. None of this is shocking or new.