I highly recommend video by Sabine Hossenfelder [1] on this topic. She's explaining the topic in layman terms, starting from what does it mean to exist (or be real) in physical sense.
Complex numbers, as useful as they are, just an abstraction, a tool which can be replaced with different forms of calculations. That makes the question of "reality" rather complex (pardon the pun).
For those interested I also highly recommend Veritasium's video[1] as an excellent explainer as well, especially regarding the roots of imaginary/complex numbers in geometry.
Complex numbers, as useful as they are, just an abstraction, a tool which can be replaced with different forms of calculations. That makes the question of "reality" rather complex (pardon the pun).
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALc8CBYOfkw