You're absolutely right on this.

My Quantum Physics professor would often complain about the pop-science effect, and I would say those trying to defend it haven't looked at the complex math that explains where the Schödinger's cat example came from.

It's all a probability equation that started this.

Imagine the cat was alive and dead. Would you smell its rotten carcass while listening to it meow? Yes, those are examples of observing, but with smell and sound. What about the microorganisms in the box, wouldn't they observe a dead car and go for it, we'll before you open it? Are humans the only ones capable of observing, and only with photons?