I've noticed a pattern with the different groups of people who are trying to go beyond the Standard Model. One group says that there is a need to "quantize gravity" while the other says the need is to "gravitationalize quanta." The former do not tend to have very much experience with GR (or differential geometry) while the latter do.

I say we need to begin with relativity, and thoroughly understand it before trying to make quantum theory do more than it was designed to do.

Not many people realize that Dirac was a string theorist before string theory became a thing [1]!

[1] See especially: "Quantum Theory of Localizable Dynamical Systems" (Dirac, 1948).