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Yes...and no.
The rails and section around the rear sight of a plastic slide are very thin. They wear, crack and fail. A metal slide won't.
Normally, the outer barrel would move and interface at a couple of points at the chamber end. The ramp, the lugs and the chamber. Since the lugs at the top of the chamber have to lock into the slots in the inside of the slide...the barrel has to tilt down to unlock so the slide can recoil (this is how a real pistol works too). But in allowing that movement, when the slide rechambers it impacts the rear of the barrel to push it forward back into postion. It ain't pushing gently...it's slamming forward. As it gets close to closing, the "ramp" cams the barrel upwards so the lugs lock into the slide. Lots of wear and tear...which makes tolerances go out of whack...which puts more wear and tear on it.
By "shaving" down the lugs of the barrel...and "fixing" the outer so it doesn't move back...the tolerances can be adjusted so that the slide doesn't impact the barrel any more (it doesn't need to push it forward).
So the barrel isn't "fixed" so much as it's size (by reducing the lug size) has been reduced such that the slide just moves back and forth over it without "touching" it (it might touch it, just not enough to move it around much).
So....do you need a metal slide if you get this "fixed" barrel...no, a regular plastic slide will work.
...will a plastic slide last as long as a metal slide...no
...will a metal slide last longer with a "fixed" barrel than with an "old style" metal barrel...yes
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