Sometimes the cutout is a bee-removal of a colony that has only been there a few weeks. The queen is laying, they have comb and brood and a little honey..... you'd like to take it all with you and put it in a top-bar hive, but the comb is so new and green, it's like trying to handle a bar of butter at room temperature. A hair clip goes right through it, then the comb sags and falls.
Older comb (two months or more) will usually stay sturdy, in the hair clip.