from what we know,
quarks make up baryons. (a baryon is a neutron or proton) leptons are pretty much everything else like electrons and mesons.
a photon is an electromagnetic wave. electromagnetic waves and particles like quarks and leptons are interchangable. you can make quarks out of gamma rays and gamma rays out of quarks.
no body really knows what a quark really is.
they have never ever been observed by them selves, only in groups. some speculate that that a quark is just a twisted electromagnetic field that has two or more ends.
but that is beside the point. you asked why the speed of light is what it is.
but first, I have to disagree with jlhredshift on the subject that
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"Science creates models to explain actions, not to answer "why"
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because it seems to me that the very basis of science is to answer "why" based on observable actions.
but, as for "why?", current research and proposed "theories" as to why there is a limit to the speed of propagation of light is still in contention. meaning, researchers are still trying to figure it out.
but so far the limit seems to be directly related to the very structure of spacetime itself
maybe someday
