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> some kind of phenomenon that happens to photons but only when they travel great distances

Tried, found wanting. Repeatedly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_light

Anisotropy of space is (a) again adding complications and (b) unlikely to produce such a spherically symmetric redshift. The CMB is infamous for how smooth it is. The different region of space would have to be perfectly spherical with us in the dead center. May as well revive geocentrism.

Look, if we did find evidence like that from JWST or whatever, we'd re-evaluate what best meets Occam's razor for the totality of the evidence. But that doesn't change the fact that with our current evidence, that explanation is expansion of space. Other stuff is sci-fi at best. Fun to think about, but no reason to actually believe it.

The story for dark matter is more complicated, but similar in broad outline. The more the alternative theories try to fit all the evidence, the closer they get to reinventing dark matter. You have something that walks like matter and quacks like matter, so the smart money says it's matter.



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