Maybe it is a notation issue.

What is a negative number? What is multiplication? What is a complex "number"? Complex are not even orderable. Is complex addition an overloading of the addition operator. Same with multiplication?

What i squared is -1 ? What does -1 even mean? Is the sign, a kind of operator?

The geometric interpretation help. These are transformations. Instead of 1 + i, we could/should write (1,i)

The AI might be clearer: https://gemini.google.com/share/6e00fab74749

A lot of math is not very clear because it is not very well taught. The notations are unclear. For instance, another example is: what is the difference between a matrix and a tensor? But that is another debate for anyone who wants to think about it. The definition found in books is often kind of wrong making a distinction that shouldn't really exist more often than not.