This paper applies a strict mechanism-only, elimination-by-necessity analysis to the quantum field theory vacuum to determine whether it functions as a physically enforcing entity. By admitting only localized energy–momentum exchange, finite propagation speed, locality, and reciprocal back-reaction as real mechanisms, the analysis removes zero-point energy, vacuum fluctuations, and virtual entities as non-enforcing attributions. The paper shows that physical evolution remains invariant when the vacuum attribution is removed, establishing that the vacuum does not act as a carrier or enforcer. All observed “vacuum effects” reduce to interaction- and boundary-dependent enforcement by a physically real stress–energy substrate, with the vacuum serving only as a descriptive label for the substrate’s unexcited state.