You correctly identify human time as distinct from physical systems. Reference time is also defined by the thermocontextual interpretation (TCI).
You also allude to the fact that reference time does not mean that physical time does not exist; it just means that it is different. Specifically, mechanical time has no direction. Motion involves mechanical time as a dimension of spacetime, but it has no intrinsic direction.
The TCI [1] describes system time as a complex thermocontextual property of state, defined with respect to a reference with a reference clock. In quantum mechanics, mechanical time is expressed in units of 'it' ('i' is the "imaginary" square root of negative one). In relativity, physical time is the imaginary dimension of spacetime. Mechanical time is the imaginary coordinate of complex system time. It is a mathematical coordinate of a state, and it can be picked arbitrarily, and it can be reversibly moved back and forth across time.
System time also has a real component, which marks the irreversible dissipation of exergy (and production of entropy). The real component of time is the irreversible thermodynamic time.
System time comprises the real thermodynamic time coordinate, measuring the irreversible dissipation and entropy production, and the imaginary mechanical time component, indexing the sequence of states. Both components of system time are measured by reference (human) time, which irreversible flows toward the future. Reference (human) time gives direction to reversible mechanical time and to relativity's light cone.
