Bind links with drupal settings instead of ctools-use-modal class

As we all know, it is possible to bind ajax functionality to a link using 'use-ajax' class.
The exact same approach is used for binding modal window functionalities with the class 'ctools-use-modal'.

In Drupal it is also possible to bind ajax functionalities to elements using settings.ajax.
When you bind elements with settings.ajax, the url of the ajax callback along with other settings are already defined in the backend.
This comes handy, if you want to prevent non-ajax usage of the link and make the href of the link look nicer.

Could it be possible to get the same kind of functionality to Ctools modal?