Qt Model for non-table custom widget - c++

Question

I created a custom widget composed of QPushButtons placed on a broken layout since I need to place them on specific places with no geometric pattern. I've previously used QAbstractTableModel for QTableView with success and I would like to have the same ability of letting a model be in charge of the front-end updating. The buttons will mostly provide visual feedback changing text and color based on backend data changes. I included a link (end of post) that has something of use for me but I'm unable to see how I would achieve what you get by, for example, reemplementing Model::data() when role is Qt::DisplayRole. How would QModelIndex apply in something like this?
The first thing that comes to mind with a rough pseudocode:
class MyModel : QAbstractItemModel
{
QMap<int, BtnData> m_btnDataMap;
QVariant data(QModelIndex mIdx, int role) {
if (role == DisplayRole) {
return m_btnDataMap[mIdx.row()]; // returns a BtnData item
}
}
void updateButtonData(int btnKey, BtnData d) {
m_btnDataMap[btnKey] = d;
Q_EMIT dataChanged(btnKey);
}
};
class RandomlyPlacedButtonsWidget : public QWidget
{
QMap<int, QPushButton*> m_btnMap;
MyModel m_myModel;
RandomlyPlacedButtonsWidget() {
connect(m_myModel, dataChanged(int btnKey), this, updateButtonVisual(int btnKey));
}
void updateButtonVisual(int btnKey) {
BtnData data = m_myModel->data(index, DisplayRole);
m_btnMap[index]->text = data.text;
m_btnMap[index]->color = data.color;
}
};
Is this a proper way of using the dataChanged() signal on the widget side? Would something like this make sense to do? It would be ignoring columns, would that conflict with it? Would QAbstractListModel be better because of that?
I don't need specific code, I'm more in need of a way to properly approach this while keeping things clean and easy to maintain.
Using Qt Model/View with non-table like data and non-table/list UI?