I believe the fluting was added to keep the firing pin from sticking as a result of the build up of dirt in the firing pin channel. You can imagine that the luger design, combined with a stuck firing pin makes a pretty efficient machine gun. And on the other hand, a firing pin that gets stuck while retracted, produces other unwanted effects during trench warfare: you'd lose from the guy with the shovel...
A combination of gun grease (as used in the old days) and dirt makes pretty good cement, so some added space was welcome.
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