IMO, Salts best feature is probably running with the Master / Minion setup because it connects out to the master. Masterless is handy for using in conjunction with Vagrant, Packer, or another provisioning tool not so much for managing a the lifecycle of a server / OS.
In production, an outsized number of companies are using SaltStack a certain way.
The reason is because of the way we all evaluate business risk. I could have said that out of all of the companies I've worked with using Salt that have compliance requirements, 100% of them are using it Masterless, but then some smart-ass would have piped up with a "not me" comment.