That's a great explanation of the absorption but I think the other missing piece of the puzzle is why the photons that aren't absorbed must be scattered or reflected instead of passing straight through (after all, atoms and molecules are mostly empty space). We know visible light can pass through some solid matter and radio and microwaves can pass through apples.

I don't relish pointing that out because I know the answer isn't easy: I think an answer to that might be need to get into the realms of QED and particle interractions. Nevertheless, I do think any answer to why an orange is orange (not all apples are red so not a great example imo) needs to explain why orange is scattered or reflected and not just why non-orange light is absorbed.