An Attractive Proposition

That's a pretty decent dialog you been having with 'Timo', Paine.
There's just one minor change of wording i would interject where you
writ,

Spatial energy will not exert a force upon matter unless it is
accelerating toward
matter.

I would word it thus,

"The spatial medium, the SPED, will not exert a force upon matter unless
it is accelerating `through` matter."

Or in the case of gravitating bodies where the flow doesn't go `through`
them, the SPED exerts its force by dint of the zone of lower pressure
between the bodies, causing the higher pressure from 'behind' to push
them together.. as you elucidated.