[McQueen (OP)]

It is right to say that a medium is necessary to physics, but it would be wrong to say that  mainstream physics does not appreciate this fact; fields have replaced the medium. A good description of  the  quantum mechanics conception of  fields is that a field resembles a smell or an odour more than anything else; it is stronger the closer you get to it and then rapidly fades away the further away you get from it. This is because fields are thought to emanate or be associated with particles; the closer one is in proximity to the particle the stronger is the field and vice versa.  There are at present about 100 particles in quantum mechanics, most possessing their own field. At one time at the height of the particle epidemic, when physicists were falling over themselves to bring new particles to light, there were well over 400 sub-atomic particles. This number ( has hopefully) now been reduced to a hundred or so particles.  As to exactly how the number of particles was reduced is in some doubt but presumably flaws were found in the methodology of detection or in the theoretical derivation.  At the same time although not tacitly stated, fields are thought to permeate the entire Universe, although since they are linked to particles it is not exactly sure how this relationship is explained.  certainly to manufacture a hundred or so fields and give an explanation as to their origins is a formidable task. Quantum Field Theory, in spite of having an inconsistent explanation for the propagation of electromagnetic radiation holds that fields are the only real objects in the Universe and that matter arises when two fields interact, with the resulting matter being dependent on the energy involved in the interaction of the fields.

In contrast to the hundred or so fields associated with quantum mechanics, the Neo-Classical version of the aether has only  a single medium consisting of 'virtual photons' that had their origin at the inception of the Universe at the time the Big Bang but whose physical structure is identical to that of real photons emitted by electrons the only difference being the extremely low energies of these 'virtual photons' of the aether medium. The physical structure of the photon according to Neo-Classical Physics is that of a di-pole electromagnetic structure possessing the capability of  preserving its energy (identity) intact over huge distances.  The advantage of such an aether medium are almost too great to enumerate: it is absolutely permeable to matter, there is therefore no need to speculate how the planets can travel through it without hindrance,  at the same time it allows all electromagnetic radiation(radio waves, light , x-rays, gamma rays etc.,) to propagate through it according to the inverse square law and also explains perfectly how coherent light propagates. It provides a Universal frame of reference. It explains why the speed of light is constant and independent of its source, it describes the dispersion of light in the same exact terms as those with which a normal wave disperses. The 'virtual photon' aether also explains how and why gravity exists. Neo-Classical physics explains very accurately the mechanism of gravity . It explains the existence of neutrinos. Such a medium would have been impossible to detect using MMX, it would have travelled straight through both M & M and their equipment without the slightest interaction. This is the electromagnetic version of the Universe that Lorentz, Einstein, Poincare and Maxwell dreamed about. This is the theory that explains an electromagnetic Universe.
 
Thus outside of the nucleus, whose gauge interactions have already been adequately explained, the 'virtual photon' medium of Neo-Classical Physics explains every possible phenomena in the Universe, it is THE ultimate theory of everything with no shortcomings or lacuna.