That's right about observation events. They are often called interactions instead.

But the wave-particle duality applies to literally everything at the quantum level, per the standard model and quantum field theory anyway. And that's a model with an incredible track record.

Looking at a particle as a wave is usually in the context of that particle by itself moving in a straight line through a vacuum. There isn't really vibration and temperature; there aren't even atoms! You just have the particle's energy in eV.

Whether we can subjectively compare the packets of energy in quantum fields with the waves of energy through matter, I have no idea. The math is solid though.