Thanks @TomvanHalen.
I'm looking at 10 speed, so 5700, which do have band versions.
Yeah I'm surprised they weren't phased out earlier, why I asked the question in the first place - thought there may be some inherent attribute of the band I didn't know about.
5800? Do they even come in dedicated clamp on units now? I thought that the "clamp-on" version in the new shimano gen stuff is all braze-on+adapter...