I’ve read some of the proofs, and some of the rebuttles to proofs on time dilation.
They often involve affects concerning the speed of light and/or gravity as mathematically demonstrable elements of the proofs and rebuttles.
I am of the belief that the affects of light-speed and gravity may have as much to do with (1) simply how things appear to be and (2)how those things affect our measuring devices, or how they work, themselves, but not actual “time”.
One can say that one clock is off because gravity created a dilation of time, just as the counter argument says gravity simply affected the other clock, the measuring instrument, not time.
How to explain then that subatomic particles traveling at near the speed of light, decay much more slowly, compared to the rates at which they decay when at rest relative to us. They do so at just the rates that would be expected given time dilation. In that case the clocks that are measuring the phenomena are at rest.
Remeber the very best clocks are based on just such subatomic decays.