I know you asked for other people (presumably not me) to confirm this but I can point you to the statement of the theorem, as written by Conant and Ashby in the original paper :
Theorem: The simplest optimal regulator R of a reguland S produces events R which are related to the events S by a mapping h:S→R
Restated somewhat less rigorously, the theorem says that the best regulator of a system is one which is a model of that system in the sense that the regulator’s actions are merely the system’s actions as seen through a mapping h.
I agree that it has nothing to do with modelling and is not very interesting! But the simple theorem is surrounded by so much mysticism (both in the paper and in discussions about it) that it is often not obvious what the theorem actually says.
I know you asked for other people (presumably not me) to confirm this but I can point you to the statement of the theorem, as written by Conant and Ashby in the original paper :
I agree that it has nothing to do with modelling and is not very interesting! But the simple theorem is surrounded by so much mysticism (both in the paper and in discussions about it) that it is often not obvious what the theorem actually says.