What Schrödinger’s cat REALLY means

The most scientific attitude is to be "agnostic" about reality when evidence is contradictory, unless or until something comes up to force a decision either way. 
Metaphysically, and I am not even a fan of the metaphysics of physics, behaviour is dictated by mechanism, so unless we get to know the mechanism of how superposition works, we won't understand it. 
So this implies that there is at least one layer of reality that we cannot directly detect. Perhaps reality is simply "solid", an infinite number of "worlds", which largely don't interact, but provide enough interference or influence to make the electrons behave so strangely. 
It may be that energy/matter "particle/waves" "time share" reality. They only spend part of their existence in our reality. So infinite "entities" , but they create "quorums" in different realities, of which ours is one. 
It may be that light does not "move" at all in a "real" sense, but it is our perception [not just humans, but all particles in "our universe" that "perceive" and interact with their likenesses. Under this scenario, all particles change in character, and we can thus only "see" them sometimes. 
When we open the box, the interaction of the open box determines whether the cat is alive or dead. In half of the universes, it is dead, and in the other half, it is alive. 
This [kind of] makes sense. 
If we imagine a universe with only ONE particle, it cannot interact with anything, so it's actual existence is moot, for all practical purposes. If you have two particles, there is interaction, and therefore potential detection. So "poetically" the two particles define each other's existence. And so a "macro" level universe is "perceived". Or at least, perceivable. 
This is actually cause for optimism, because we don't have to fall back on "just so" anthropocentric justifications like:- "We happen to live in a universe where life is possible, therefore we exist". Notions like this are circular, and therefore unhelpful as explanations. 
If all that can exist, does exist, then the big picture does not require any special or mystical explanation, it just is. But we are probably forever trapped in our little "corner" of reality.