To sum it up, as we can't know what exactly electrons are, if we are being minimally honest, we can't answer this kind of questions properly. But we can always keep trying. 
I wouldn't say that, because physics is about modeling the reality, not explaining
why reality is the way it is. QM models both electrons and photons quite well; definitely well enough for simulations to produce results that are directly applicable and testable in the real world.
The main thing that makes electrons different to photons is that electrons are fermions, whereas photons are bosons. Any number of photons can occupy the same quantum state, but only one electron can occupy a specific quantum state at any point in time; this is what
Pauli exclusion principle is about. The exclusion principle is also why non-interacting fermions can often be treated as
"Fermi gas" –– the behaviour is close to that of an ideal gas –– via
Fermi-Dirac statistics.
It is also why it makes sense to model the charge carriers in conductors (especially metal lattices) and semiconductors as waves (as approximations of quantum wave functions). Such models predict what happens in the real world rather well: so much so, that this is how new dopants in semiconductors (both surface and bulk) are explored, and things like memristors are explored; with the main practical problem in making the findings reality being production: how to duplicate the desired molecular structures in a commercially viable manner.
The main thing I'd want people to remember, is that electrons are not spherical or even point-like particles: just like photons, electrons exhibit
wave–particle duality. For example, an electron does not really orbit around an atomic nucleus: it is
delocalized (in the QM sense, not in the chemical sense) in a specific waveform around the atomic nucleus, and has properties
analogous to "real-world" spin/angular momentum. Because electrons are
spin-1/2 particles, they have exactly two pure spin states, which are called "spin up" and "spin down". This is also why you can have exactly two electrons in otherwise the same quantum state, as long as they have different spins. This can be shown in practice:
Stern–Gerlach experiment. (The field of spin transport electronics is called
spintronics, in case this two-state property raised your interest for implementing binary or Boolean logic.)
If you are a proponent of alternative physics models, do consider looking at e.g.
the photoelectric effect, and carefully go through your alternative model and examine what kind of results it yields. If its results do not match experiments, it isn't useful, is it? You see, the photoelectric effect (and the
ultraviolet catastrophe) was one of the key things that
lead to the adoption of quantum mechanics as the currently best model at small scales. They didn't just "pick" one; it is the one that predicts reality and practical measurements and experiments best, thus far.
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