Energy in physics feels analogous to money in economics. Is a manmade medium of exchange used for convenience. It is the exchange medium between measureable physical states/things.
Is energy is real in the same way money is? An incredibly useful accounting trick that is used so frequently it feels fundamental, but really it’s just a mathmatical convenience?
Small aside: From this perspective ‘conservatipn of energy’ is a redundant statement. Of course energy must be conserved or else the equations are wrong. The definition of energy is it’s conservation.
Thats actually what OPs question was about, and I would argue its not exactly like youre saying. Energy is a concept used by humans to categorise natural processes. Its more like saying “kilometers exist regardless of humans”. While technically true, nothing is “naturally” measured in kilometers and there woudnt really “be” a kilometer without humans.
I understand. But I would counter with kilometers is a unit of distance. Energy is not a unit of measure. For that we have other words, like watts and volts and many others.
Energy and distance do exist without humans. How we measure both is a human construct like you said.