Both common in industrial design for simulating the performance of a part-to-be.
Is your skepticism directed at all climate models or just the cutting-edge planet-scale politicized ones? I find our weekly forecasts quite useful, for example.
Weather models are definitely eyebrow raising. On days where there 0% chances of rain as the forecast, I receive .25". On days where it is >80% chance of rain, 0.0" of rain falls. Then there are days where it tells me with the accuracy of minutes of when the rain will start/stop. When their accurate, it's amazing. When they're not, it's very frustrating.
