“math is the language of physics, so if the math works then the physics applies”
Sure, but physics is still just an attempt to approximate reality, and shouldn’t be ontologically confused with reality itself. If your physics tells you that in some circumstances, an entire dimension of space collapses and the universe becomes 2-dimensional (as relativity does in some reference frames), that does not mean that, in reality, the universe is actually collapsing into 2-dimensions. THAT would be “barking nonsense” to interpret the physics in that manner.
False.
"One of the defining conditions of an inertial reference frame is that there exists a proper orthochronous Lorentz transformation which converts that frame into any other inertial reference frame, and vice versa. But for all such transformations, the starting and ending frames are moving at some relative speed less than c; however, any photons that may exist will be moving at speed c in both frames. There is no way to use a Lorentz transformation to produce an inertial reference frame that moves at c with respect to any other inertial frame" - https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/21972