Research into model welfare is justified by the mere possibility that we may be manufacturing countless instances of suffering entities. We owe it to them to ensure that we understand and attempt to minimise any suffering they may experience, which requires understanding more about the physical correlates of pain and suffering in order to detect and reduce them.
Chickens experience pain and suffering yet we kill 202 million of them each day. [1]
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/how-many-animals-get-slaughtered-...