> Firstly, maybe I shouldn't have said "saturated," but then again, you wouldn't argue that your earth tones, for example Yellow Ochre or Burnt Sienna aren't saturated in color?

I think you are confusing a definition of saturation meaning "unable to absorb more" with the visual perception definition.

Optical Engineer here, but AFAIK artists use the term the same way: "saturation" refers to how the color is free of both white- and black-shading, "degree of non-grayness" if you will.

The outer ring of this image is fully saturated; you'll see that "muddy" colors like ochre and sienna don't occur there.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi...