[bb1234]

Any modeling approach can be implemented/used in an incorrect way. The so-called analytical approaches also often make very specific assumptions on functional forms to be able to obtain analytical solutions. By performing extensive sensitivity analysis one can reduce the drawbacks you mention. Of course, this needs to be done, and you are probably right that many papers don't do this. But that is hardly a problem with the modeling technique, which can be quite effective if used appropriately.

[SonOfLilit]

Agent based simulations obfuscate this, both to the reader and experimenter.