...is that a hypothesis suggests some means of testing its validity. You can phrase it as a question that can be answered unambiguously by an observation or experiment. If you can't do that, its just talk. A speculation is just a comforting bit of fuzzy thinking that "sounds cool" in a human language.

When an electron interacts with a photon, the electron is kicked into a higher energy level or orbit, or even kicked out of the atom altogether (ionization). Later, the electron may drop down to its original energy level releasing another photon, or it may cascade down through several energy levels releasing several. The atom may speed up, vibrate or rotate just enough to make sure all the Conservation Laws are satisfied. (How does it "know" how to do that? Now THAT's an interesting question!). Even free electrons interacting with a magnetic field can spontaneously emit photons (Bremstrahllung radiation). Whether or not photons achieve that speed "instantly" or not is probably a question that has no answer. It has no answer because you can't figure out an experiment or observation to determine it. You can't go into an atom and time moving objects, not only because of the practical impossibilities, but because of things like the Uncertainty Principle.

This kind of science can only be done by performing experiments on collections of phenomena and mapping the statistical possibilities of different outcomes. They do not behave like the objects of our ordinary experience. Its more like magic, except mathematics seems to help a lot.

Photons, (and electrons, for that matter) after all, are not actually "things". Its not exactly clear what all these subatomic particles are, but it is misleading to think of them as little ping-pong balls flying around. They are actually probability functions in phase space*, whatever that is.