That is often my reluctance to use it, especially when talking to folks prone to confirmation bias. I'm not sure there is a way to convince people who only accept evidence that fits their existing worldview. It took me years and a lot of reading to finally seriously entertain the idea that the religion I was raised in could be false. Once I really opened up and stepped back it unraveled pretty quickly.

Yet being that open can be very socially costly, as it was for me. If I'd heard steel man arguments from opponents while still closed to inconvenient truths, then I'd just have accept them without critical thought. And any attacks on that steel man would have been dismissed with whatever was convenient. It devolves into Rube Goldberg levels of mental hoop jumping to stay in that mindset. Though if the alternative is strained relationships or losing ones church community then it becomes second nature, even unconscious.

Steel manning an argument is an extraordinarily powerful tool for rational thinking. I do it all the time, every time I encounter someone who holds beliefs I cannot understand. But I'm very hesitant to post the result of my steel-manning online, for this and other reasons. It's a private exercise.

It's also quite dangerous if you're attached to your beliefs. I rarely walk away from steel manning an argument without being persuaded to some degree into a compromise position.