No, this paper claims that introducing gravity as an emergent phenomenon in Verlinde's framework breaks quantum mechanics. He shows that Verlinde's proposal changes the Hamiltonian. However, the solutions to the standard Schrodinger equation have been measured in experiments with ultra-cold neutrons and shown to agree (ergo, disagreeing with Verlinde's theory).
Regarding your "rant": either way, it's still a force. Gravity still causes things to move. How that force is explained is clearly different in different theories. General Relativity suggests (1). Quantum Gravity theories suggest (2). Newton didn't really explain how it was mediated.
You could apply the same rant to QED: Either electrodynamics is caused by the bending of a vector potential by electric charge or it's a force transmitted by photons. The two statements are equivalent. But with gravity, we're not sure if quantum part is true.
Regarding your "rant": either way, it's still a force. Gravity still causes things to move. How that force is explained is clearly different in different theories. General Relativity suggests (1). Quantum Gravity theories suggest (2). Newton didn't really explain how it was mediated.
You could apply the same rant to QED: Either electrodynamics is caused by the bending of a vector potential by electric charge or it's a force transmitted by photons. The two statements are equivalent. But with gravity, we're not sure if quantum part is true.