[daxfohl]

I think it's a natural reaction after Einstein. The whole physics world was certain about this Aether thing, and it turned out to be wrong and much more beautifully solved by plain geometry. "Dark matter", taken at surface level, sounds like going down the exact same rabbit hole.

There's a fundamental difference though. With dark matter, the evidence of the stuff is much more direct and precise. We can determine the shape and concentration of it. Aether on the other hand was a hand-wavy metaphysical concept from the beginning. There was never any experimental evidence that aether was a real thing; it was just a concept invented to patch up the inherent inconsistencies in electromagnetic theory near the speed of light.

[duutfhhh]

Or spacetime is that aether. This is like some dusty books have been claiming that there's an invisible fluid substance around us that supports life, then when science discovers oxygen, it says "See? There is no invisible ether or anything like that around us, only atoms."