I know the theory the view you're saying comes from, and the weight it has in academia, but it always struck me as useless. And that whoever came up with it was lost in notation.
Not from the photon's point of view. This is very crucial and it is not because of notation or maths. The real difference is from your point of view. I know it's counter-intuitive but that's different from being useless.
Sun->Earth or Sun->Jupiter is a small beer. It is the same for photons from the CMB being recorded. For them, they have been emitted and absorbed at the same instant and experienced no passage of time or distance traveled
What are the real physical consequences of thinking that the photon is "emitted and absorbed at the same instant"?