Gary Coffman writes:

A *rate* is a measure of how quickly *something* else is
converted, moved, or otherwise transferred past an observation point.
It is that *something else*, in this case energy, which does the moving.

You say that a "rate" is "not an actual thing that moves". By your logic,
then "energy" is not a thing either, it is just a rate at which molecules
pass by at some density.

When you get down to the philosophical underpinnings, a "thing" in physics
is just whatever you can measure, which is to say, something sensible in
any quantitative manner, whether by direct human sense or via intermediate
instruments.

Do you believe in electrons, or in holes, or both, or what?