True, but I believe the baker who invented it did state that it was meant to compete or substitute a baguette, but Italian.

Baguette: Chewy on the inside, hard, crusty, and chewy on the outside. Gotta scrape the inside of your mouth and give your jaw muscles a workout. If your mouth and jaw isn't sore after eating one, it's no good.

Ciabatta: We like the chewy but the hard and crusty not so much. Let put a ton of olive oil on the outside to lessen the crusty, but keep the chewy. And being Italian, olive oil goes on most things anyways.