In the distant past i replaced cush drive rubbers that were compressed and breaking up in Hondas.
On my vV85TT last seen when i changed the tyre in Nov (16,000 miles) - they looked ok - will check again when i change this one in a month (about 22k miles)
It just seems odd to be breaking up at such a low mileage, they are around £17 each to replace (that’s if you can find any 
)
baldrick told me (when discussing my cali) that making a cut in the rubbers can make the drive a bit softer. I assume that, or just saving rubber for cost reasons, is the reason for the hole.
with the low volume of bikes made by guzzi I doubt it is cost reasons really.
@ Sidthedid, it will be done to provide additional cushioning in the cush 
. It was common practice to drill holes in the solid rubber pucks, as otherwise they became hard as steel and didn’t do much to prevent damage to driveline splines. I don’t know if other Guzzi models had rubber pucks with ‘factory holes’ or if this is a new feature on the more recent models? The V7lll rubbers are solid so it’s been introduced with the 850s.
Thanks, interesting 
On a very long trip - Greece, Balkans and more - V85 had gone incredibly jerky with a load of lash in the drive train. It was getting difficult to ride it giving a real kick in the seat when closing the throttle. On return the immediate problem was a couple of broken spokes but after removing the wheel to have a look see I spotted the very worn out Cush drives. Loads of free play, they were sticky and horrible. I ordered from Teasdales which took about 2 weeks in the end, along with the spokes. Bike transformed afterwards.