>The simplest way to see this is to realize that Kerr's statement that if a theory predicts singularities, the theory is wrong, is something that virtually all physicists who work in GR agree with!
Maybe it was my misfortune, but the university professor who taught me GR thought that singularities are "real", so this anecdote (sadly) disproves your absolutist opinion. And there are heaps of real papers from real scientists which seriously discuss potential consequences of having "real" singularities. And if we'll take a look at the pop-sci coverage, it's orders of magnitude worse... Just see the Veritasium video linked in the other comment.
> the university professor who taught me GR thought that singularities are "real"
Did he teach it from Wald's classic textbook? Wald, Chapter 9, explicitly disclaims any belief that singularities are real and explicitly says the classical GR prediction of singularities indicates a breakdown in the theory in that regime. Other classic textbooks like Misner, Thorne, & Wheeler say similar things. So do many peer-reviewed papers published in the field.
Sadly, I am not surprised, though I am disappointed, that many university professors do not know the subject they are teaching well enough to be aware of what I have just said. But the fact remains that the statements I have described are the ones Kerr (who certainly cannot claim ignorance on the part of whoever taught him GR as an excuse) should have been looking at to gauge the prevailing opinion of actual researchers in the field. But he didn't.
> if we'll take a look at the pop-sci coverage
Nobody should be relying on pop science to learn actual science. Nor should anyone claim that pop science coverage is an accurate gauge of the opinions of actual researchers in the field.
Maybe it was my misfortune, but the university professor who taught me GR thought that singularities are "real", so this anecdote (sadly) disproves your absolutist opinion. And there are heaps of real papers from real scientists which seriously discuss potential consequences of having "real" singularities. And if we'll take a look at the pop-sci coverage, it's orders of magnitude worse... Just see the Veritasium video linked in the other comment.