A lot of highly qualified quantum physicists regard the vacuum energy model as an easier but incorrect method of calculating short-range atomic/molecular dipole interactions. They've been able to calculate the correct Casimir force and other one-loop effects in quantum electrodynamics using this dipolar interaction model exclusively. Since both models can't be correct, and this one explains the observed phenomena based on proven physical quantities without postulating a field of vacuum energy, it appears that they're right.
I was stunned when I first ran across this idea because so many of the titans of theoretical physicists like Frank Wilczek and Steven Weinberg talk about vacuum fluctuations as if they're an empirical fact, rather than a convenient short-hand for a more computationally complex but physically superior model. Here are a couple of papers about this:
Jaffe, R.L. "
The Casimir Effect and the Quantum Vacuum." Phys Rev D 72, 021301(R) (2005)
Nikolic, N., "
Is Zero-point Energy Physical? A Toy Model for Casimir-like Effect." Ann Phys 383, 181 (2017)
So it appears that there are no vacuum fluctuations at all - that would explain the bulk of the "vacuum catastrophe." But that leaves us with the same problem - identifying the nature or the source of the dark energy effect.
Since the Standard Model offers no explanation in the particle zoo - even with extensions like supersymmetry, the solution appears to rest in the theory of gravitation. And Verlinde's theory of entropic gravity seems like a hopeful avenue for explaining the dark energy effect and the dark matter effect, while preserving the countless successful predictions of GR:
Verlinde, E., "
Emergent Gravity and the Dark Universe," SciPost Phys. 2, 016 (2017).