Mathematical zero is a mathematical construct that suits your rules. In the rest of the world, one bone minus one bone equals zero bones. If my diet is bones, I can tell the difference between one bone and zero, because it means the difference between survival and hunger. Given that I live on bones, and there will be lots of other objects ("something") in my environment, I also need to be able to count bones. I must be able to see zero bones, otherwise I will not survive.

There are human cultures that count objects as one, two, three, more; in those cultures (numerically) there is no difference between four and 167. But that does not deny you the use of the higher numbers for your maths.

Incidentally, most dictionaries define zero in terms of a cardinal or ordinal number.