I have to pass it through a filter to get the proper polydata
let smoother = vtk.Filters.Core.vtkPolyDataNormals.newInstance();
let model = buildTestModelSource();
model.buildCells();
model.buildLinks();
smoother.setInputData(model);
mapper.setInputConnection(smoother.getOutputPort());
And now it works. Really hard for something that should be easy.