As they say, you can't fit a square peg or, better still, an irregular square peg, into a round hole. So why, in economics, would you try and fit a real-world thing like a real-world capitalist market economy into your ideal round hole of a perfectly competitive market economy, if it doesn't fit? Better, instead, to construct a theoretical hole which actually fits the shape of the real-world peg itself. At least, then, your economic theory would match up with the real world of capitalism.
Seems a perfectly sensible and rational thing to do, as the history of science shows - and, as John Locke argues in his Essay.
Incidentally, the question about whether science is and/or should be a rational pursuit is worth exploring. A useful resource for thinking about these sorts of questions is John Locke's philosophy, as he has much to say on the subject, especially with respect to the work of 'wary chymists' - such as the Robert Boyles of his time.
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