Something I posted a while ago as an answer to an out of context Einstein quote ...
Einstein wrote a few obscure articles and letters in which he tried to redefine the term "aether" in an effort to gently reconcile the outdated views of one of his aged mentors with his new theory of relativity - but the term aether had lost so much credibility already that not even Einstein could get the scientific community to follow him on this path and the term, rightfully, disappeared in obscurity. At no point did Einstein agree with the original view on aether - for example, here is another quote from that writing ... "no state of motion can be attributed to that new aether". Does that sound like a replacement for gravity?
BTW, I always find it hilarious when people that deny gravity, believe the earth is flat and think the universe is an illusion projected on a dome quote Einstein, who famously said ... "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."