> I was talking about the actual rules in the physical world. These exist independent of us. They function, they don't predict.
Nobody knows what those are though; mere humans have to get by with prediction.
In fact there's no airtight reason to think that you can even in principle make the leap from valid predictions to knowing what the actual physical rules really are. This is the whole "problem of induction" thing:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_induction
No amount of observing the universe can ever conclusively prove that our ideas about how it really functions are true, because we're stuck inside it and can't directly inspect the clockwork, if there is any.
I find this sort of nihilism completely tedious. Yes, we can know there are neutrinos there. This physical reality is not identical with our theories about them.
Do you not recognize that "There is no purpose to neutrinos. Your question makes no sense." is itself tedious nihilism?