I'm not sure that the word "distorts" is central to the conceptual understanding I'm trying to discuss. Yes, we are limited by conventional English as our only means of communicating--and, as with any language, it reflects a certain worldview, a specific understanding of how the world works...
Conceptually, if spacetime distorts or curves, demonstrating the property of being something "substantial" (ie. able to have shape that can be distorted) doesn't that make it a substance? How can "nothing" have a shape that can be distorted? In other words, perhaps the early theorists trying to...