I’m not sure what impact templating or layout has in any of this. I was convinced from looking at the GoJS documentation that a Model has what is needed for rendering shapes, lines and text. Any templating and layout would be accessory in this context. And that’s the reason of my original question.
The thread you posted in was about our GoDiagram product. I suspect you meant to post in the GoJS category, so I’ve moved it there. I’m also not sure what original question you are referencing.
Generally, yes. The model will provide the necessary information to render a diagram, with the templates and layout allowing for customization of how the diagram is rendered.