MMP.11:9 - Consequences

The family carries usable knowledge through variation and fitting. It can supply a bound before a particular model is selected, or reveal why more observations of the same kind will leave the important ambiguity intact.

The cost is constructing and checking the representation. Strong restrictions reduce the search but can exclude useful candidates. A flexible family can retain more possibilities while increasing inference cost and leaving more uncertainty. Compare these costs against the result the work actually needs.