[jerf]

"The long established narrative in (especially American) academic physics that there is no questioning of quantum mechanics, and no use hoping for a deeper theory,"

Really? The narrative I've heard is that we know Relativity and QM don't go together very well and it's clear that we need something beyond the both of them to figure out how the universe works at all scales. And physicists in general seem pretty excited about any tidbit of data that might contradict one or the other, because they desperately need clues about what the non-QM/non-Relativity answer looks like. Who is out there saying that we must not look for anything beyond QM?