Keep in mind these descriptions are just interpretations of observations. Another intelligent civilization could explain the observations in a wholly different way. The observations show that light is affected by gravity (more precisely, by centers of gravitational attraction) the same as material objects are. We have alternate generally accepted ways of looking at this, such as the river model of space [1], where space is moving inward toward a center of gravitational attraction, carrying along in its "current" everything including light rays.

[1] http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.0419

Correct. Photons are responding to the curvature in space-time, not directly to the gravitational field. Doing a second check, light has inertia-mass, but not rest-mass.