deepfat

I hear what everyone's says about the exhaust band and I probably will end up leaving it off but I do have some questions.
If this item serves no purpose why didn't MG Rover delete when they were trying to save every penny they could?
Was it still fitted to the late LE500 models, I don't know the answer to this but if it was why?
With all due respect the MG spares answer is business speak for "we will sell you this pointless strap for £50 but as we don't do one for the smaller exhaust it's not needed"
Looking at how it all goes together the strap (if it was better quality) is there to support the CAT, the CAT has a solid mount to the backbox at one end but the other end has a "solid" mount to the downpipe which has a flexi in it, so not so solid/supportive. To my mind this means the weight of the CAT is almost entirely hanging on the backbox mount and this area will be subject to stress.
It would be interesting to find out where backboxes fail most commonly, if it is around the area that the exhaust enters the box this is the area I think would be subject to stress.
Being old I do have a Victorian attitude to engineering if a 1/2 inch mount will do make it 5/8 to be sure but I also appreciate an elegant solution, this is neither