Banners cannot be put in head slot.

The link doesn't say "Hey, you can do this now without using command etc."

true that

MC-32514 is a similar issue. Both are odd oversights that would make sense to be changed, and were never announced as features. MC-32514 has, I believe, been around since 1.3 added desert villages, and it was never changed or even mentioned until now, which really makes that seem like a feature suggestion. And yet this is a brand new thing, in a snapshot no less (which often are full of bugs), that was even demonstrated by Jeb. Other issues which are more nitpick/suggestion than bug have been fixed as well.

I think we should get an official word on this before marking this as invalid/intended.

In fact, it is a command block only thing. You can't do it in survival, unfortunately.

This can only be done with a command block so that is why Every youtuber uses one.