They are not an explanation, they are a requirement. You don't have consciousness in a rock because nothing is happening in a rock.

Tell that to the quintillions of electrons hopping between orbitals taking tens of attoseconds to complete :)

I mean eletrons switch orbitals when photons are absorbed or released by said atom. The particular problem we have here is where is the memory at this subatomic level. Memory appears to be an emergent behavior at higher levels.