It is not so much that "it has been bastardized for market conditions" as that is has been a commercial name from the start. Which does not mean that "there is no value in the name": names are but ways of communicating about things, and commercial names are of great value -- "millefiore" can be said to be used as a commercial name as well!
In the Tibet/China cultural area, banded agate beads are called Bhaisajyaguru beads. (English for Bhaisajyaguru: the Buddha of Medicine). It has been reported that this is also a commercial name, and not so old at that. The name is significant, though: it refers to the fact that since old times such beads have been valued for their healing qualities. In the Islamic world people use them in various ways. Wearing them against the skin is supposed to be a sure way of preventing strokes. In rural Pakistan, a tiny fragment of a banded agate bead is (was?) crushed into powder, diluted in water and drunk by women in danger of miscarriage, as a way to easy their child labours -- and this points also in a subtle way to the Judgment of Solomon, doesn't it?