I am not sure what you mean by "it’s all in the wording of the listing" and are not trying to start an argument, but I do not believe the statement "Amazon.com stopped selling individual lithium ion batteries about a year ago" is their current policy.
Also, I am not recommending any of these batteries, but for example here is a link to some "KeepPower 18350 flat tops" for which the Amazon listing states "Date First Available December 19, 2017".
I do not know if these cells are legitimate but they are shipped by Amazon Prime and the KeepPower 18350 was reviewed by HKJ on this forum who stated "This battery is from the new generation of smaller cell with much improved performance. This means that this battery is one of the best 18350 at the current time."