Unfortunately, the printer and the paper/ink combination have a limited gamut, but before we squeeze the final image into that limited gamut, it's best if our tools distort the color space as little as possible, all along the way.

Not distorting, translates to retaining as many steps as possible.

Nobody is claiming that we can see or manage all those subtle steps.

We just want to retain as many as possible, so that things remain as "analog" as possible, as long as possible.