From that text:
That is factually wrong. It may be a journalistic simplification, but it is wrong. Light does not "take the fastest path", it follows a straight line. However, the speed of light is different in different media, and when a beam of light passes from one medium to another (in this case 'mediums' are masses of air with different temperatures) at any angle different from 90deg, it will be refracted (or even reflected). This is also how lenses work.
When light passes through a (collimating) lens it is so that the light that passes the central parts of the lens has the shortest way to travel, but it travels through more glass where it travels slower, whereas the light that passes through the outer parts has longer to travel but travels through less glass, hence faster. The end result is that all parts of the light beam has the same travel time.
I am not sure what case the guy in the link is making, but he says that gravitational lensing has not been observed around objects that did not have plasma, which is rather obvious since gravitational lensing is only observed around extremely heavy objects (star class objects), and such objects invariably have plasma. So his statement seems to be equal to saying that rain only happens under rain clouds.
Anyhow, Bjarne, I really don't see what you are getting at. Science is ALWAYS questioning its own results. To try to topple old theories is really the raison d'etre of science. However, none of this supports YOUR ideas. Instead of bickering about possible gaps in science, you should seek to VALIDATE your ideas. There was a time when you were willing to make experiments. Not very effective experiments, but at least you had the will.
How about trying to formulate the predictions of your ideas? Not something like "the theory of relativity will be toppled soon", because even if that were true, it would not support YOUR ideas, but instead something like "If my idea is correct, then we should observe ......".
Like back when you predicted a certain gravity gradient in a tall building. OK, you were wrong, but THAT was some sort of science.
Hans