Without myself contradicting Dr. Dick, Bruce, I think what you write makes sense! If you are this wise, perhaps it would not hurt to play the elder statesman yourself. It says to walk on eggshells when criticizing another's models that work pretty well...

You quoted Patrick Reaney:
"Einstein's concept of space-time
is free creation of his mind. It does not need
to represent a THING ontologically and thus there is no circular reasoning..."

It says a person may depart from Einstein's model to explore actual physics of the universe. Unusual angles and tangents may be part of that.

for the record I am completely comfortable with Einstein being "Man of the Millenium" as some folks named him... it doesn't matter that much ! and it's nice to have an eccentric, esoteric thinker in the Chair. Looking for ways around him and his models is just part of being frisky and relaxed with him...like being his friend in Heaven!
Bruce, which are YOU saying MORE?
1) Dr. Dick's ideas about relativity say very little of value, illustrate very little of value, and are mathematically primitive.
2) regardless of Dr. Dick's ideas, he ought not to have attempted to defeat well-tested models while presenting his own comments or pointing to an alternate arena of possibilities..
3) nothing...you're not responding to this
( in which case please answer in ALL CAPS! :-)