Special Theory of Relativity, no General Theory

So, let's suppose that one day in 1908, or 1909, Einstein is wandering about aimlessly on the streets speculating about the nature of light. Contemplating, as usual, if the streetcar trams might act like beams of light in some ways, Einstein gets a little too close to one, his clothing gets caught up under the wheels, he is pulled down, and his body is horribly mangled beneath the vehicle. Einstein's torn body is then tossed to the curb, and he tearfully begs for assistance from the passers-by as he slowly bleeds to death. They're busy going to work, or the bank, so they let Einstein "go to the light". Truly, a great tragedy, don't you think? So, Einstein has had a few years to publicize his Special Theory of Relativity, but we have no General Theory of Relativity. What is the significance of this? Bear in mind, the contents of the Special Theory of Relativity -- space and time are related, nothing can go faster than light, E=MC2. All extremely speculative, and largely untestable. And, yes, I know that the Michelson-Morely experiment had already shown light always travels at the same speed. However, this appears to be a characteristic of all waveforms. Sound, for example, exhibits a Doppler effect for exactly the same reason that light does -- sound always maintains a fixed velocity, and the sound waves become shorter or longer, depending on whether sound is approaching or receding from you. So, I'm not sure, with Einstein's early death, that anyone really takes Relativity very seriously at all. After all, why would they? There's no real evidence for it. Now, I'm sure, with increasing precision in measurement and increasingly powerful telescopes, astrophysicists will eventually notice that gravity does indeed bend light. But, why would they make any connection between this, and Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity? OK, gravity bends light, so, photons probably have a certain very small mass. Simple enough, right? We don't need space-time for this, we don't need time slowing down and stopping. So, I really don't think we ever have, or need, the General Theory of Relativity, at all. We simply get models for how gravity affects light, probably somewhat like those in General Relativity, involving non-Euclidean geometries, but, without requiring space itself to actually be curved. Just light. You see, I think Einstein had an artist's tempermant, and was a very sensitive and perceptive man. He could see that by tying concepts together in a very broad conceptual way, he could attract a lot more attention than he could simply by making straightforwardly testable hypotheses. The Special Theory of Relativity is largely untestable, but fanciful and interesting. The General Theory of Relativity makes empirically verifiable predictions about light and gravity. By tying the two together, Einstein gets the best of both worlds -- speculative fantasy, with empirical verifiability. The problem is, the empirical results don't really require the fantasy Einstein suggests they are actually based on.