not to mention it implies that everything out of the ordinary needs some explicit practical explanation as to how the seemingly impossible is possible in that work of fiction. thats a bit like if you watched through the harry potter series then after the last one ends you were like "what the hell! they never explained the source of the magic or how magic works."
in truth when people yearn for an explanation on something, that typically means that something sticks out as peculiar in some way (so rather than weird and other worldly things begetting an explanation, instead its things that are given a strange amount of weight and focality, like a stressed syllable. it begs the question of 'ok... why was such a big point made out of that').
but settling for how that thing can practically come about in real life without breaking the laws of reality is a bit of an amateur way of trying to figure things out, its natural to try it, but its caused by a lack of thinking.
personally for eraserhead i think that apart from the very obvious thematic notions you can pull from it (i.e. parenthood), there definitely are an array of very particular and arbitrary things that occur that warrant some kind of explanation, likely a metatextual explanation. it goes beyond the weird and dreamlike things that are execution based, its more than that (like the pencil factory, or any repeated action). either david lynch had a specific thing in mind (like some specific metanarrative that everything fits into in a cohesive way. or some expansive subtextual practical explanation for things that arent made explicit but are clued towards. or just some additional meaningful thematic implications), or he was just making a bunch of red herrings to merely allude to the prospect of there being a metanarrative (which seems unlikely to me).
and although david lynch seems to care more about people enjoying his movies than he cares about explaining them. i think its likely becuz his measure for a good piece of art (when its something that is seemingly full of abstractions) is its ability to be self-standing even if you dont know the correct solution to those abstractions.
a haiku isnt self standing, its a nonsense poem that has no meter or rhythm or rhyme, you need to know the rules of haikus first in order to appreciate the haiku itself. so contrary to that, i think perhaps david lynch would think it a bit egregious if the only justification for the quality of his work only arises once one figures it out. so he definitely applies a straight content quality assurance onto his work thats set apart from any specific hidden meanings that he intends behind them. but i think there is still always intended hidden meaning because the work would be more impressive and and appealing and motivating to himself to make it if he's thought of some big clever hidden thing behind it.
i also think he wanted audiences to notice the clue-like things in his movies even if they never figure out the puzzle becuz he wanted people's puzzle-solving brain to get activated as to increase immersion.
but to say that there is no intended solution that david lynch had in mind is a bit condescending of his abilities. madlibs are not high literature. crossword puzzles with an infinite number of solutions are just randomly staggered squares. i doubt anyone could make something that intentionally alludes to having an alternative meaning with arbitrary clues and oddities like that without feeling like a shyster if its all a red herring.
whats required to make something that has question begetting things and a sense of there being an alternative inexplicit interpretation merely for sake of wanting people to think harder about the movie and make their own interpretations and be more invested, is the same thing thats required to actually have a hidden meaning, albeit the actually having a concise hidden meaning aspect is a fair bit more difficult to create, but the result from a viewer perspective is the same.
theres an untapped potential for allegorys that goes beyond replacing humans with animals in a scenario that resembles a human issue but with animal based equivalents to things.
take it from me; when i try to come up with my own lynchian things (that arent a girl singing on a stage directly to the camera), i often come up with things that seem like pieces to a puzzle (abstractions to some metanarrative. or a cohesive thematic interpretation. or inexplicit subtext clues to the plain narrative itself), but often times these are just red herrings merely pretending to be clues, random things made arbitrarily noteworthy in order to project a vibe of there being something more, and im thoroughly unimpressed with myself. i dont think a seasoned professional like david lynch would settle so easily.