Lets go with the common aphorism 'all models are wrong, but some are useful'. As it puts forth there are a large number of useful models, but wouldn't that fall under your term of a lie since it's not the truth of a situation.
The problem with reality is it feels no need to be explainable.
I think I meant to post this to the user above you....
I guess my point is, as someone who has done a ton of work in this area, there are a million choices one can make when choosing what to visualize, and the lines between truth/reality/lies/accuracy can get muddled. A lot of it depends on context, use cases etc. For example, a star high school teacher may show one of Drew Barry's animations to their class and use it as an example of the limitations of visualization. A creationist could use the same animation as evidence of "God's perfect design".
What I'm understanding from the article and from your arguments, is that unless you can guarantee that a piece of work 100% represents reality in all its complexity, it does more harm than good. I'm politely disagreeing, I think it's better for these works to exist: "Perfection is the enemy of done".