This whole debate is always so bewildering. Programming paradigm fanboys get into heated arguments about which model is the "best" one, but actual computer science research uses myriad different models of computation, usually endeavoring to select the one that is most convenient for the given purpose.

Sometimes that could mean using the lambda calculus, particularly in study of language theory and type systems. Other times that could mean some sort of black box model, such as when proving lower bounds for solving problems using specific operations (see e.g. the sorting lower bound). Yet other times, like when establishing the ground-zero of some new variety of computational hardness, I can't think of many more suitable models to cut up into pieces and embed into the substrate of some other problem than those based upon Turing machines.