Agent-based models capture the messy reality of economic systems by simulating heterogeneous actors making local decisions with imperfect information, allowing for emergent phenomena, non-linear dynamics, and adaptation over time, precisely the features that equilibrium models abstract away through unrealistic assumptions of perfect rationality, homogeneity, and static optimization that fail to predict or explain crises, bubbles, and technological disruptions that define actual economic evolution. To be honest, ABMs aren't perfect either. They face challenges with calibration, validation against empirical data, computational limitations, etc.