Why can’t the dark matter be the tiny grains of a quantized, background-dependent space? Grain size would vary; smaller in regions where matter is dense and larger where it is sparse. Wouldn’t this explain the strange rotation curve of spiral galaxies as well as the distortions of gravitational lensing (see link)? The dark matter is undetectable simply because the grains consist of unmeasured space-time properties with only one measured (discrete) property of volume—not enough for detection.

https://garyblaise.medium.com/dark-matter-a-shy-unicorn-4667ae72073b

Dark energy, on the other hand, could simply be the continuing, ubiquitous emergence of new grains from the background pushing everything apart, just as we observe?