The sky is not falling.... till it does when an unlucky owner is faced with the cost of relaying ribs. God help him if it is a best gun.
What is the use of the side ribs on OUs and the bottom rib on SXS? It is not structural, gunmakers themselves often state that the ribs do not hold barrels together. They provide no function in pointing.
Their rust trapping potential is undeniable and often seen in photographs.
Darne did away with the bottom rib on some models, Martin did away with both bottom and top ribs. Numerous OUs have no side ribs with no loss in performance.
Rather than side and bottom ribs it might be a better idea to exploit the weight savings and keep some barrel wall thickness that is way more useful.
As for brazed on ribs, there the whole barrel assembly is brought to 650 degrees centigrade just to stick on those bits of rib, it is thermal overkill, done to avoid loose ribs in low grade guns.
