Like you and P.S.Wesson (5D2T) I keep my mind open to additional expanded dimensions of time. Vafa's f-theory also allows for additional dimensions of time but compactified following Kaluza/Klein (string theory.)
And thank you, dear Robert A. Cook, PE - for that delightful jab at the gold/supernova theory!
BTW, the inflationary model includes an early phase where the universe expanded faster than the speed of light. The same research puts the era of reionization at about 400,000,000 years after inflation.
It could look like photons are ‘existing’ in one of the compacted dimensions of Time (I called them variable expressions of the larger called dimension Time).