Actually, it is. This is why light travels "slower" in denser media, and the entire basis of optics.
Without this absorption and re-emission -- which introduces a small delay in the "travel" of the photon -- light would not bend when transitioning different density media at an angle to the...
I got the explanation about stimulated emission and lasers as explained here: Understanding Stimulated Emission: Got the what, how about the why?
What I'm still unsure about is if this also explains the simpler question of how light passes through a transparent medium, like glass, yet the...