My Point of View

The VARCHAR(MAX) type is a replacement for TEXT. The basic difference is that a TEXT type will always store the data in a blob whereas the VARCHAR(MAX) type will attempt to store the data directly in the row unless it exceeds the 8k limitation and at that point it stores it in a blob.

Using the LIKE statement is identical between the two datatypes. The additional functionality VARCHAR(MAX) gives you is that it is also can be used with = and GROUP BY as any other VARCHAR column can be. However, if you do have a lot of data you will have a huge performance issue using these methods.

In regard to if you should use LIKE to search, or if you should use Full Text Indexing and CONTAINS. This question is the same regardless of VARCHAR(MAX) or TEXT.

If you are searching large amounts of text and performance is key then you should use a Full Text Index.

LIKE is simpler to implement and is often suitable for small amounts of data, but it has extremely poor performance with large data due to its inability to use an index.

Reference

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/834788/using-varcharmax-vs-text-on-sql-server

I would like to find all the stored procedures that has reference of Functions or called Functions from Store procedures.

Here is the script;

Select 
	Schema_Name(p.schema_id) As ProcedureSchema, p.name As ProcedureName, 
	Schema_Name(f.schema_id) As FunctionSchema, f.name as FunctionName
From sys.sql_expression_dependencies d
Inner Join sys.objects p On 
	p.object_id = d.referencing_id And p.type_desc = 'SQL_STORED_PROCEDURE'
Inner Join sys.objects f On 
	f.object_id = d.referenced_id And f.type In ('AF', 'FN', 'FS', 'IF', 'TF');

How to restore a higher version SQL Server database backup file onto a lower version SQL Server?

We can use functionality called Export Data-Tier Application which generates .bacpac file consisting database schema and data.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/data-tier-applications/export-a-data-tier-application?view=sql-server-ver16

On destination server, you can use Import Data-Tier Application option which creates and populates new database from pre-created .bacpac file

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/data-tier-applications/import-a-bacpac-file-to-create-a-new-user-database?view=sql-server-ver16

If you want just to transfer database schema, you can use Extract Data-Tier Application for creating file and Deploy Data-Tier Application for deploying created database schema.

I’ve tried this process on different versions of SQL Server from SQL 2022 to SQL 2017, SQL 2014 to SQL 2012 and from SQL 2014 to SQL 2008R2 and worked well.