Richard,
Sorry to read the news.
I think the steel band is fitted because Suzuki engineers worked out that was the cheapest way to make a clutch basket that would withstand the centrifugal loads at maximum revs - fitting a steel band would be cheaper than thickening up the aluminium fingers (steel is a lot cheaper than aluminium). Centrifugal loads increase with the square of the speed - at maximum revs the loads are 4 x the loads at 50% revs so the band will be doing most of its work at high speed, so if you do decide to re-use the current clutch basket without a strap I would aim to keep the revs down.
If you do fit a new band the quality of the riveting is critical - it is quite possible the Chinese mechanics riveted the old one back in place - but because of centrifugal force if they were poorly done they would be the first things to fail and the evidence of the remains of them may have been lost in the oil draining.
Good luck
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