Point by point 

(1) The current text has:
Take, for example, the rainbow of colours reflected from a puddle of water when a thin film of oil rests on its surface. That phenomenon can be understood by thinking of light as waves, the length of which results in different colours.A very clear explanation of interference in thin films may be found in Sears, op. cit., p. 203ff. Other phenomena, like the working of light meters in cameras, can be explained by thinking in terms of particles of light (called photons) colliding with the detection screen inside the meter, the force of which is registered mechanically by a pointer or needle.

This is just plain wrong.  The length of waves does not "result in different colours." The different wavelengths of light are perceived as different colors.  And the fact that the waves of light have different lengths does not explain the "rainbow of colours" either. If the editor had bothered to read Sears he would have an understanding that would allow a correct explanation, not an exercise in the mystification of the novice reader.  

Second, the description of the light meter suggests a device like the carnival strength meter in which a contestant strikes a lever using a sledge hammer and the other end of the lever hits a ball that then moves vertically alongside a measuring stick of some kind. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Even if the crude analogy of an electron as a bullet that strikes electrons and knocks them out of their original planetary orbits be accepted, the electrons do not then physically strike the end of a needle that then moves along a dial face. T

If this article is to be radically rewritten, it should be done so with both a clear understanding of what the true facts are and also with an eye to presenting those facts in a way that will not cause very damaging preconceptions to form in the mind of the novice reader.

It is the differences in phases between the light waves reflected by the air/oil surface vs. the phases in the light waves reflected by the oil/water interface that effectively "cancels" light of some wavelengths and permits light of some wavelengths to reach the eye of the observer from each different region of thickness of the oil film.  You criticized the original diagram that clearly shows how interference occurs as "off-putting." But what have you put in its place?

It is the (mechanical analogy) pressure of the dislodged electrons that moves them off of the surface of the metal plate and through a wire to an electromagnet that attracts the spring-balanced needle which then moves in a way proportional to the induced amperage. Then they go through another wire back to the "low pressure" region of the metal plate. Even in modern light meters, it is all a matter of electrons moving in electrical circuits, not electrons pushing on lever arms.

Please be careful to give the most useful citations. I have discovered one citation that is a circular reference to a Wikipedia article by way of an external "encyclopedia." Also, the expression "Trojan wave packet" will not mean anything to the average well informed reader, hence serving only to create an air of mystery and incomprehensibility.  I have already supplied a reference that distinguishes Trojan wave packets from other wave packets.