The SyAAF is in a terrible state of repair and isn't well suited to much tactical use at this point especially given their lack of a large ground attack fleet. To use them effectively would mean incurring more casualties which could be a real issue for them. I understand why their jets drop bombs from high altitude, but their jets are targeting (usually) enemy positions. They're being used for a legitimate purpose.

Barrel bombing is STRICTLY the purview of transport helicopters. Barrel bombing depopulates an area by destroying residential areas and making it impossible to live there. This has several benefits- it flushes people out of a city making it, in theory, easier for ground forces to fight there (though this doesn't really happen, cities marked for barrel bombing are in opposition territory that the government hasn't been successful at retaking), it denies the opposition a civilian working population to administer their territory and provide goods (Especially food), and it shows the civilians that the opposition cannot protect them.

A better use for these helicopters would be to use them for their purpose: transport. A rapid reaction force of a few hundred SAA soldiers deliverable anywhere in the country by helicopter means things like Hasakah could have been stopped dead in their tracks when you (at the first sign of trouble) fly in several hundred (more) troops. Allegedly this did occur in Hasakah by way of passenger planes to Qamishlo, but it appears a day late / dollar short. But when Idlib was really heating up, massive shifts of supplies and troops (either to reinforce or to retreat without leaving all the goods for the enemy) would have been incredibly useful. The transport helicopter force of the SyAAF is being wildly misused in their current state as deliverers of barrel bombs.