[tomphoolery]

What you're overlooking here is the "model" part of an MVC application is not limited to being an Active Record object. Indeed, many experienced Rails developers are also major proponents of the use of service objects and "domain models" which can exist outside of the database.

The misunderstanding of when an MVC architecture is appropriate, and when to (and not to) use the framework, is the mark of someone who has not yet really understood how to use Rails effectively.