but that a single photon extends for a much larger region of space as far as it being able to be absorbed in a discrete unit - literally meters.
Infinitely large. Due to time dilation within its own reference frame the photon has no sense of time, thus it can travel an infinite/arbitrary distance in zero of its own time. The photon arrives at its destination as soon as it leaves the source, according to its own clock. While the photon is doing this journey YOU are ageing, but not the photon. This is why the speed of light 'C' actually has a limit, because it arrives at its destination in zero time. To arrive earlier it would have to have left earlier because you going backward in time would be required and that is not possible. The photon does not have the ability to age you backwards. Think about that for a while!
Nothing can travel faster than zero time, hence there is a hard limit to the speed of light. How it's journey measures in time to you is entirely dependent on your own reference frames clock. The photon is unchanged by your measurement other than the fact that it was absorbed by your sensor to get that measurement. Its speed within its own zero time reference is unaffected by the motion if your sensor (towards or away) but your sense of absorbed energy (frequency of light) will change within your own reference frame with moving towards or away as the photon is absorbed. Its your own kinetic energy that actually shifts the frequency of light of your sensor.
The experiment presented a very different way to think about photons, space, waves, and interactions. I always thought that photons were indivisible units of energy, but this experiment demonstrated that the wave function of a single photon could be absorbed simultaneously in multiple places at once separated by meters. Made me rethink the standard line given to neophytes getting into physics.
No, It can not be absorbed in multiple places at once, though prior (by your clock) to that absorption the field can exist in multiple places at once before that absorption event. The electromagnetic field can only be absorbed in one location and this is the reason that a photon has been thought of as a particle. It is neither a particle nor a wave but still it can only be absorbed in one place. The photon field itself exists everywhere along the path between the source and the destination simultaneously, during the entire flight of the photon by your clock, and while you are ageing, the photon is not. Your sense of time is based on your own thermodynamic change that occurs before the photon is absorbed and registers on your instrument, within your own personal reference frame. To the photon this journey was instantaneous, and you were the only one aging during that experiment.
You need to understand that all reference frames are completely separate and the personal clocks of each reference frame do not connect except when and where the two reference frames physically interact. Outside of that single instant the personal clocks will never agree.