"Why do some stars make loop-de-loops as they traverse the sky?"
"Because entities on the celestial scale don't behave in ways directly analogous to anything humans are intuitively familiar with."
"Oh..."
It's not just "not an explanation", it's declaring that there _is no_ correct and easily understandable mathfree explanation or analogy. The only way you can properly understand things like this is within the context of the experimental measurements we've made and the mathematical models we've developed as a result. There's no way to explain these to a five year old in a way that's not significantly incorrect (unless perhaps they happen to be uncommonly good at linear algebra) .
The current layperson explanation is so significantly incorrect that I think it's actually detrimental. Photons aren't "particles" like marbles, and they're not also "waves" like you see on the ocean. They're sure as hell not both at the same time in some sort of religiously inspired "don't question it" union.
What they are are entities, abstract things that we can create and play with and measure. We can make somewhat complicated mathematical models to predict certain aspects of their (and similar entity's) behavior. They at times exhibit behavior one would expect from a particle. In other cases they exhibit behavior one would expect from a wave. They're neither though, they're their own thing that behave by their own rules. That's it.
It absolutely is an explanation. The explanation is not just "they don't behave as neutonian macro objects" - that's the a beginning of it. The explanation itself comes after when physicists describe in exact ways how these quantum objects behave, explained so specifically that it can be calculated upon with specific equations.
The fact that those explanations don't fit in your current set of intuitions about world and objects in it is more of a "you-problem", not "physics-problem". The universe has no obligation to make sense to you, it is more of your job to create those new intuitions in your mind and those new models of the world. While the physicists have provided you with all the needed tools, it is still up to you to build them into your mind.
It's easy to explain.
Sure. But, AFAIK, newtonian physics covers most of the behavior of the planets; that GR affects the timing rather than the paths. Or am I substantially wrong?