The problem is that laymen don’t have the requisite physics understanding to be able to tell the difference between actual rigorous theory and crank theory that

The problem is that laymen don’t have the requisite physics understanding to be able to tell the difference between actual rigorous theory and crank theory that sounds fancy. (In this particular case I don’t know the requisite theory myself but having experienced crank theories in areas of physics that I understand, it’s obvious this is the same.)