I don't think S/D models are worth saving. Supply curves can only be made in the case of perfect competition, which is almost never the case and any business in such a state doesn't have the extra cash to hire an economist. Businesses frequently don't know and don't care to know their demand curves either, instead they just use a discounting model. If you want more information about how prices are set, just look at market power. The only use of supply and demand models is as a complicated proof to show that customers generally prefer lower prices and business generally prefer higher prices. This isn't very informative and it's just as easily taught as the assumption of self-interest. We could save students a lot of time by skipping perfect competition and equilibrium and moving on to discounting formulas. Discounting also sets students up for learning about money and banking, which is oddly absent in all these models as well.
I don't think S/D models are worth saving. Supply curves can only be made in the case of perfect competition, which is almost never the case and any business in such a state doesn't have the extra cash to hire an economist. Businesses frequently don't know and don't care to know their demand curves either, instead they just use a discounting model. If you want more information about how prices are set, just look at market power. The only use of supply and demand models is as a complicated proof to show that customers generally prefer lower prices and business generally prefer higher prices. This isn't very informative and it's just as easily taught as the assumption of self-interest. We could save students a lot of time by skipping perfect competition and equilibrium and moving on to discounting formulas. Discounting also sets students up for learning about money and banking, which is oddly absent in all these models as well.