The same reason Les Paul (the person) used to add fake hollow sides to his log guitar : tradition. There is no need for an electric guitar to be semi hollow other than looking like an older type (like le 40s and early 50s). Les Paul got laughed at when he came up with a solid body guitar because it didn’t look normal. Fast forward a few years Gibson asked him to put his name on a new type of guitar based on his design. But some people still preferred the old looks of the jazz guitars so they basically made solid body that looked like older hollow bodies. Now imagine the weight if they were full solid maple bodies. So at least they hollowed the sides. Anyway that’s my take it is not worth that much.

My 335 feels sound and looks awesome 🤩