Not untrue. Electrons in a gas molecule quickly - in nanoseconds - drop down into the ground state, emitting a well defined line spectrum with each transition. Electrons can be excited out of the ground state in a number of ways, collisions that knock electrons free are one.
During recombination, the electron drops through a series of states quickly giving off a characteristic wavelength photon at each step along the way.
Yep, then the photon hits the phosphorus coating producing the glow we can see.
I once read a book by Einstein, what I recall the most was his apologizing for having to use a mathematical equation in his book. He was writing to the average man, and wanted to explain things as clearly as possible. That influence made me choose a decidedly unscientific term such as "comfy", in an earlier response.
Anyway this little discussion of ours started when I was not sure how a DC current could make a florescent bulb glow as you stated in post #86.