The cuts are silly but the SOCOM profile is basically just a heavy barrel profile so it is nice. On the never ones they should phase out the cuts since we switched to hk 320s a while back and are useless now. I can't think of any good reason to mount a 203 to a rifle anymore but maybe there is some small niche reason I'm not thinking of.

Fluting saves a little weight but aside from that the other benefits are negligible. People say they're more rigid and dissipate heat better than an equivalent weight barrel without flutes but testing shows that there is very little difference. Unless they hammer forged the flutes in the machine time wouldn't be worth the trade off.

If you're looking for AR barrels then Centurion Arms makes a great barrel in a couple different profiles that make better sense than the older designs. They have really nice cold hammer forged chrome lined barrels and even nice stainless steel barrels.

I think the Colt barrels took a dip in quality when they began outsourcing them but were still decent and like you, I hope CZ does good things with them since CZ usually does good stuff with whatever they get into.