Okay, hear me out here.

A photon acting like a particle only when being observed makes no sense.

What if the reason the wave function collapses when it's being observed is because it's being manipulated by some higher technology /quantum mechanic we dont know about yet.

The purpose of this tech: to show you where you are across parralel universes. To show you your "superposition."
Maybe it's purpose is some sort of cosmic compass.