Detail without Clay?
 

Long story short, I'm taking my car in for an exterior detail and the shop apparently doesn't do a clay bar as part of the process. The person on the phone said using a clay bar is too rough on the paint and that they do a two step buff + polish process instead. This seems strange to me. Any thoughts? The shop was recommended.

Sounds like the kind of shop you don't want to take your car to. Clay is not at all hard on your paint... worst case is some micro marring of the surface, which is then easily corrected in the polishing stages.

Any shop that wouldn't decontaminate your paint properly before buffing is not the kind of shop you want to allow to touch your car.

If you use a fine clay and lube it wont scratch the paint. If you don't clay, the crap will still be stuck in the clearcoat.

I've used the meguires clay kit on a couple of cars, no way it scratches the paint. It works as advertised. Buffing does eventually wear through the clear coat, I would only buff if I absolutely had too and even then I'd put it off for as long as possible. You've only got so may buffs you can do.

They don't clay because the additional time would eat into their profit. Does not sound like the type of place you want to go to.