It is valuable to be thinking about the map and territory relation and the (obvious!) fact that the model is not the modeled, precisely because this is ignored or missed so often.
When that happens, one likely consequence is that you have a blurrier understanding of reality and you would likely be better served with a different, more accurate model. Of course, you will not be looking for that, if you do not believe that there is a problem.
That does not just sound like a blind spot.
The Halo Effect is a cognitive bias, where our impression of some aspect(s) of a person, brand, or entity influences how we perceive their other traits or overall character.
So a well-dressed, attractive person may be mistaken for competent, a well-credentialed, articulate speaker presenting a complex solution could be assumed to be smart and correct. If a company is known for well-designed products, we assume that their newest product release is also of high quality.
It is fundamentally a problem of misattribution.
We take one noticeable trait, such as appearance, credentials, confidence, reputation, etc, and project it onto unrelated qualities or contexts. The well-dressed person must be competent. The articulate speaker must be correct. The trusted company must have made another great product.
But these assumptions are often wrong. Attractiveness is not competence. Complexity is not correctness. Reputation is not quality.
One does not mean another.
Just because a map is the official map for an area does not mean it is up-to-date. Just because it looks professionally done and shows precise details does not mean it is correct.
Likewise, just because a model works well in many contexts does not mean it works in that specific one. A model’s professional presentation or explanation does not guarantee its validity.
It is very easy to misattribute and that makes it easy to overlook problems in a model, mistaking it for something that it is not.
The map is not the territory.
The model is not what it models.
This does not mean that.
It bears repeating.