I don't think the point of a model like this is so much "this is a full description of how the real world works," but "if you make this assumption, then here's

I don't think the point of a model like this is so much "this is a full description of how the real world works," but "if you make this assumption, then here's how it works out." It's interesting when the result isn't what you'd naively expect. A lot of people did find this particular model interesting. It might seem that if segregation is due to preferences, then when you see near-complete segregation it's because people preferred to almost completely avoid people who don't look like them. But actually, a relatively mild preference to just avoid being in the minority is sufficient to make neighborhoods almost completely segregated. That's true even if everyone actually preferred being in mixed neighborhoods (as long as they weren't in the minority). Whether people actually do avoid being in the minority is a separate question. But if were get some data saying that's the case, then that would be sufficient to explain segregation.