So very true. The ideas mentioned in the article does not sound appealing to me: "In this picture, the curvature of space would constantly fluctuate on extreme

So very true. The ideas mentioned in the article does not sound appealing to me: "In this picture, the curvature of space would constantly fluctuate on extremely small scales, well beyond anything we could hope to measure" "Her model is based on the idea that extra dimensions, beyond the three of space and one of time that we witness, might be hidden out of sight." Instead of cosmological constant "novel" approaches relay on something that could not be observed, even in principle. That does not sound like a good approach. My guess is that they try to make some assumptions, figure out math around it, hope that it will somehow stick nicely, which would give hope that there is something in it. Indeed, it seems that math "likes" to describe our universe, some mathematical theories (Riemannian geometry, group theory) fit physics wonderfully. The problem is that for physics math is just a language, it is unlikely that language alone will give us answers without understanding physical phenomena itself.