I expect that the String Theory Lobby will not be happy with this development. Personally I like it since it is testable, a feature that seems to be lacking in ST.
Agreed. It also sounds easier to understand than String Theory. It always bothered me that String Theory does not seem to be teachable in a conceptual way, to the layman, in the way Special and General Relativity can be. I can't get my head around ST at all. But the thought experiments Einstein used to explain Relativity are not too difficult to grasp and kind of fun.