If this is an AAA-Snow then it will have rings, one of the reasons that model never caught on so well, though it is still sought after by those who don't care for the Nichia blue tint.
The Nichia models will still have some artifacts compared with a reflectorized light, but shouldn't be that pronounced, e.g. compared with the Snow version.
Centering is a matter of how the die is situated in the led envelope (i.e. it's not a matter of how the flashlight is assembled) and is a hit or miss thing. It doesn't affect the usability of the flashlight and so Nichia goes ahead and ships the leds allowing a fair amount of slop in centering. Off-center beams bug enough users though, that for a premium light like this, there's something to be said for the idea of selecting leds with good centering before assembling the lights, dealing the less-well-centered leds out as surplus.
I compared a bunch of my 5mm lights and some are better centered than others. All in all it doesn't bother me and I didn't notice it before other people started complaining about it.
