Einstein followed where the results lead - his primary breakthrough was assuming no wave-propagation medium was necessary, and accepting an absurd result on it's face by exploring the mathematical consequence (namely: speed of light is constant, as a result the passage of time can vary, there is no medium through which light propagates unlike all other known wave phenomena).

You have grown up with a set of different analogies based on more modern theories: which is to say, you're letting the tail wag the dog: we have those analogies to explain physics to laymen, but the analogies don't inform the physics.