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The prompt for alternative theories is through experimentation and observation. In the context of Carl's comments there is no obvious reason to theorize why the speed of light in a vacuum is not the upper limit given that experiment and observation over 300 years have shown otherwise.
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For the most part that is correct (prompts for alternative theories), however a hypothesis doesn't necessarily need an experimentation or observation. We have no way of knowing whether such things as hyperspace/subspace or other similar higher (or lower) dimensional states might exist unless we do the experiments and make the observations. There maybe things we have observed with what we think we know about the nature of spacetime that we may have gotten incorrect in our interpretations. There are quite a few observations which have stumped us and we don't know the answers for. Maybe the answers lie outside of what we might consider as being "orthodox physics".
In any case, much of what was once "heresy" invariably becomes "orthodoxy", when we sit down and do a bit of thinking.