The truth of the matter is that only people who actually know what space is can give you the correct answer. I have studied the masters of physics all of my life. I have been especially interested in answering the question, " What is space?"
I agree with what Einstein said about space. In his day it was also called the ether. Albert Einstein gave an address on 5 May 1920 at the University of Leiden. It was in part to honor his mentor Hendrick Antoon Lorentz. Also one of the greatest physicists of all time. They both believed space was a real physical thing with properties.
“ Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense.”
Albert Einstein
All of what Einstein says makes sense and is supported by experimental observations. On the other hand you have dozens of explanations for gravity and what space is coming from QM and none of them have been proven correct. To this day Gravity is still unexplained within the Standard Model. Despite the best efforts of the best minds in physics for the last 90 years the origin of mass and the origin of gravity remain unexplained. Therefore all these people telling you that space is not a fabric and does not bend or stretch should not be listened to.
When in doubt it has always been my policy to agree with the Nobel Prize winning physicist who made the greatest discovery of all time. He explained Gravity and used his model to derive the mathematics that successfully predicts the exact amount of bending of space caused by a gravitational field. In my opinion Einstein has provided to me the authoritative proof that space is a real, physical thing. Let’s face it you can not bend something that is not real and has no substance and no existence. You can’t bend something that is not there.
The problem with physics in this day and age is that there exists many misinterpretations of reality due to the many off-the-rail interpretations of reality stemming from Quantum Theory. This has led many modern day physicists to believe in false mathematical abstractions that are not real and therefore these false concepts cannot explain the cause of anything we observe in experiments.
I say you can do a lot more than just tear space time. You can bias it in ways that can lead to many great technological advancements.