I can't say that all or even most of those barrels are bad. Mine was.
I do shoot at max range a good percentage of the time, If I were only shooting at max 40 meters you would not be able to tell there was a problem. It's only when I try to dial it in for range it shows. If I only shot CQB and short field sites it would be fine.
That's also not saying ZCI are perfect either. Out of the box, they work well, but only get good if you put time into them. Polish the insides, Deburr the hop windows ect. I put at least a couple of hours into a new barrel with micron diamond lapping pastes to get them where I want them, You can't go all out with a coarse grit paste either as you will oval the cross-section. You have to work slowly with fine pastes over time.
You need to start at about 3 microns (3,000 grit naniwa) and work in steps down to about 0.5 microns (30,000 grit). To put that into perspective most house knives are sharpened at 11 microns (1000 grit) with Japanese knives getting the extra edge going to about 3 microns (3000 grit). It's the difference in a smooth surface and a lapped surface.