So why are "mental models" the best way to make intelligent decisions? What other ways to make intelligent decisions exist? The blog post failed to explain that, it largely appears to be marketing material.
These mental models are explicit, this is good because it moves a process that was subconscious into the light of day.
And why is this good? Because we all encounter situations in which our existing ways of thinking and deciding will fail. Isn't it good to then be able to shape the direction of your own thoughts in such a situation? Of course this takes a little practise: especially in stress situations most people wouldn't think about the way they are thinking even for a moment, because it is maybe a bit too meta and needs to be thought on purpose.
In my experience this is the best thing you can do in stress situations (unless it is a matter of life and death) is to give yourself a moment, observe yourself from the outside and actively decide which way you are going to think about the solution.
So mental models can be a way to break up your own thinking and avoid doing something out of reflex or because you always do it that way. Of course blindly following mental models and applying them to everything can also be a bad thing, like every tool could if you just use it wrong enough.
What’s actually useful 99.9% of the time is either external models that can run on computers, or implicit models developed by synthesis of knowledge and practice.
PS: Mental models can be useful in extremely stressful situations where there is no need to act quickly or come up with complex solutions. There is a hurricane forecasted to hit this area in 5 days doesn’t need a great solution just a set of reasonable choices.