Hate to be picky... but actually it maps rather well to our biology. After we, we see in RGB. what it does map to is our perception. HSL is good for artists as a ‘thinking space’.
The real problem is that in art literature most Colour spaces are expressed as 2 dimensions. So called harmony is discussed most as an attribute of hue, never of a compound of hue, sat and lightness.
The RGB you'd typically use when designing or developing something does not really map very well to human biology because it's just an approximation that happens to work well with the technology we currently have.
For example, the dynamic range you can express with standard 24-bit hex RGB colors (e.g. #ff0000) is way smaller than what the human eye is capable of perceiving.
Also, using mathematical models to create palettes typically relies on a lot of assumptions. For example, #ff0000 is not perceived as equally bright as #00ff00 by a human being, yet looking at it represented like this you'd assume this to be the case.
I think it is possible to build a mathematical model that creates pleasing color palettes, it's just that they're often built on approximations that aren't really accurate.
Hate to be picky... but actually it maps rather well to our biology. After we, we see in RGB. what it does map to is our perception. HSL is good for artists as a ‘thinking space’.
The real problem is that in art literature most Colour spaces are expressed as 2 dimensions. So called harmony is discussed most as an attribute of hue, never of a compound of hue, sat and lightness.