> because photons have rest energy (=> kinetic energy) that can be viewed as mass in special relativity > [...] > impact the gravitational field despite having no inertial mass (=> rest mass)!
Speaking of "mass" in context of relativity is always a bit tricky. The term "inertial mass" for example is really saying something about how an object behaves under the influence of a force (F = ma), not how it behaves relativistically (that would be "relativistic mass", E = mc2).