Here's a hypothesis: Space is purely geometric and time is an artifact of change tracking.
I have a theory of everything that's nearing completion. In this framework space is considered to a doubly hollow doughnut (or bagel) with a twisted 4th dimension. It's basically 3D+twisted 4th+2extra dimensions that organize around the 4th. The beginning of the paper lays out the geometric model, moves into gravity, and then into recovery of the standard model.
I know that having time dilation without a Lorentz transform is weird, but here me out. A clock always has internal mechanics that govern time tracking. In this model, gravity speeds up time by compressing the 4th dimension like a spring. Physics happens faster in a gravity well because space itself is compacted.
I hope this makes some kind of sense: https://osf.io/yjq6e/files/wuzjb