We need more permanent temperature monitoring stations, in the oceans & the poles, as much or more than we need better models.
If we can't accurately measure the real world changes, we won't know for certain how good or bad the models are.
The much-ballyhooed "pause / hiatus / slowdown" gave deniers something to crow about - so much so that none stopped to think why the melt rate of Arctic sea ice, Greenland, Antarctic ice shelves and the vast majority of the planets glaciers sped up enormously.
I would have thought that at least a few of them are aware of just how much heat is needed to melt ice - it's a LOT.
Better coverage of those regions would have exposed the illusion of the "slowdown".