I was shopping for a new luggage and it took me ages before I could finally find one with a smooth surface. All hard luggages nowadays have grooves and I hate how they look. Do they serve a purpose other than aesthetics?
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Makes them stronger / more resistant to pressure in the center of the side panels. Sometimes just asthetics though.
Gives it more strength than if it were smooth. Same reason car hoods typically have some crease lines in them.
The grooves help the panel stay more rigid, so it can be made thinner or out of a lighter (weaker) material without causing problems. If you fold a piece of paper in half and then unfold it, you can see how the crease makes it more rigid in one direction without adding any more material.
Take a piece of paper, lay it horizontally, try and bend it. It folds very easily, but take a piece of paper and hold it so the very thin edge us up, and try and bend it that same way. It will take more force or end up tearing.
Adding another plane of resistance, where some material will be in compression and tension opposed to just being compressed makes it more rigid and stronger.
This same idea can be seen in an [I-Beam](https://www.grainger.com/product/DYNAFORM-I-Beam-Isopthalic-Polyester-4AUU3), a common building material, or a[ shipping container.](https://moverfocus.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Shipping-Containers.webp)
So yes, ridges add additional strength and rigidity to the luggage.
Besides structural support I feel that it helps with sliding and keeping the entire thing from looking scraped and scuffed as everything in the baggage system is slides and rollers
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