Not sure about your MEL, but the ones that I have been working with all say it about the same way...
current weather reports indicate that no thunderstorms or other potentially hazardous weather conditions that can be detected with airborne weather radar may reasonably be expected along the route to be flown.
That means to me as the dispatcher that I have to use ALL of my available tools to see if I can dispatch a WXRDR inop flight - of which an Airmet is one of the tools in my toolbox, along with Convective weather outlooks, lifted index/K index charts, you name it. If I have no convective weather at departure and arrival, but a nice cold front enroute blowing TS from one side of hell to the other, you bet your ass that I am looking at Plans B, C, all the way to cancelling if I cant route around it.
An AIRMET is a legal forecast, but just one piece of the puzzle...