I don't think they're fashionable, it's that I accept the fact we're observing only one part of GR without having to blast string theory out of every co-tangent orfice bundle. Here I jumped onto the 'closes off' and 'must', since relativity a) doesn't show to do the former, and b) doesn't care about or explicitly enforce the latter. It's a bit like every time I hear someone talk about theory of everything only have them add exclusionary clauses and asterisks each time I open my mouth.
RANT ON Perhaps "fashionable" is the wrong phrase. How about "orthodox?" The basic issue, as highlighted by this article, is that some ideas are acceptable to papal doctrine and some aren't. Those ideas very much follow the Planck maxim of "science advances one funeral at a time." Scientists capable of creativity tend to tuck their crazier ideas into short stories, which is hella fun. Scientists incapable of creativity tend to tuck their crazier ideas into weird little papers in neglected corners of academia, which is hella tedious. Max Tegmark even has a ratio; in order to keep tenure he does one hare-brained paper per 19 normie ones. Analog Magazine used to publish speculative fact. It was usually awesome, tooled for a lay audience and written in a conversational tone that was invariably thought-provoking. On the other hand, modern speculative papers are dry AF and couched in all sorts of plausible deniability which means a lack of scientific rigor is easily hidden (see above). So what we're left with is blogs discussing idiots when we used to get Sagan arguing that there wasn't life on earth (based on current scientific methods). So now we're at "is it vaguely thought-provoking? give it to the crazies" and "does it reinforce doctrine? Make Neil DeGrasse-Tyson talk about it on Good Morning America." Even if it's nutrition - especially if it's nutrition. And the thing of it is? It's the science fiction that pushed the envelope. It's the science fiction that the scientists read. Enrico Fermi wasn't known for his ruminations on little green men and yet the autocomplete on everyone's phone for Fermi isn't "-on" it's "Paradox." But god help you if you try and push a boundary or two. Nobody reads science fiction anymore, it's all Hunger Games ripoffs and Chinese propaganda. So we don't talk about the black spots in mars rover tracks. And we don't talk about the platinum-iridium wire Avi Loeb dragged up from the ocean. But ZOMFG the UAPs RANT OFF