Sorry I think we're saying same thing. On systems with non-GNU find do either `-exec cmd {} +` or `print0` work? My exp was both did NOT work. So either both work or both don't.
But if I understand you correctly on RHEL 4.X `print0` works but `-exec cmd {} +` doesn't.
Which is to say I disagree with op that it's better to rely on `exec cmd {} +` when it seems you're more likely to have `print0 and xargs -0` then that.