One of the problem and also the very reason why the photographic medium is an overwhelming success around the world is that is can be used to create a distinctively realistic rendering of a real life scene.
Therefore making it appear like a capturing device of reality in a box, on film and paper.
This could not be further from the truth obviously, nevertheless the automation and technology revolving around it undoubtedly gives the layman a feeling of objectiveness that a painting almost by definition cannot convey.
When photography entered the colour realm it was all the more obvious that the boundary between a certain representation of reality and reality itself got even more blurry.
To the point of disappearing completely for certain individuals to whom a photograph is a faithful depiction of reality. Pushing the confusion sometimes to dangerous territories with adverse consequences.
Now let us be honest, on a more technical level it is far most difficult to get a more realistic harmonious colour palette than it is of a more completely crazy one.So crazy colours could appear as a good smoke screen to hide insufficiently sound technical skills. That is all the more true because it is indeed quite difficult in practice to get realistic harmonious colours. No debate here.
However crazy colours bend colour photography towards a more obvious typical black and white photography statement where the image is more obviously perceived as just a certain (hopefully choosen) representation of reality, and only that: just one representation among many other possibilities.
Therefore installing a more obvious distance between the perception of a faithful representation of reality and what the photograph itself might convey: “the idea of the scene” entrenched, it is true, in some real life scenery and perception experienced by the photographer. But anyways we are more easily captivated by that: “the idea of the scene”.
That is the power of unrealistic colours in my humble opinion.
In some cases, I have to render reality with fidelity; in other cases I can use what is before my eyes to create an image to please my brain. I’m very particular as to who owns the camera, the film and the paper – that’s me, so I decide what I want. Others may do as they please.