I think it's overcomplicating things. Math is the study of patterns, trying to come up with rules that govern them. Those patterns might originate in the physic

I think it's overcomplicating things. Math is the study of patterns, trying to come up with rules that govern them. Those patterns might originate in the physical world or in our minds. Asking whether math is real or not is like asking "is linguistics real?" Linguistics, per se, is just the study of patterns of human language. It might, however, come up with made-up patterns (e.g., Esperanto).