You have a peculiar use of words reality and theory. I feel that theory and model are more or less the same—our ways to describe the reality. The word model is used when the description is not elegant and visibly incomplete. As for the analogy, you can have multiple source codes that do the same work. How do you establish which is the only perfect one, having access to the user interface only?
You have a peculiar use of the word model—up my alley, that word is used when you are analyzing a particular problem, however few approximations you make.
You have a peculiar use of words reality and theory. I feel that theory and model are more or less the same—our ways to describe the reality. The word model is used when the description is not elegant and visibly incomplete. As for the analogy, you can have multiple source codes that do the same work. How do you establish which is the only perfect one, having access to the user interface only?
You have a peculiar use of the word model—up my alley, that word is used when you are analyzing a particular problem, however few approximations you make.
Well, maybe I am too much influenced by the Standard model of elementary particles. There are no important reasons why not call it a theory, IMO.
None of these terms have rigid definitions, it seems.