With the possible exception of Acting agents, Model agents may have just about the most soiled reputation of any persons involved in the entertainment industry. They rank somewhere between A&R men in the music industry and insurance salesmen. Similarly to these unpopular characters, many are of the opinion that model agents are at best a questionably necessary evil.
Why tolerate their existence, then? Well, not all model agents are created equal, and there are certainly those whom one can trust completely to operate with the best interests of your career at heart. Model agents who are less inclined to actually help will probably also be less likely to grasp on to rapid changes in the industry that will quickly render ineffective model agents promptly into dinosaurs.
The future's model agents will in many ways be the models themselves, creating their own promotional materials and alternative methods of creating a nome for themselves. Model agents played such a larger role as sources of talent in years gone past because this was the most efficient way for talent and those seeking talent to come together.