Yep, combined with lax seating positions. You press into the back so your ass kinda pushes forward, being stopped by the friction with the chair, which then slowly but steadily wears it down. I change my position fairly frequently too as I can't stand (...) sitting in the same position the whole time.
Especially cheaper chairs will degrade like this very quickly but I've yet to see a chair that not goes through this process (I'm too poor to afford the expensive models though). If you reach the point of having a big hole I'd suggest putting some other fabric beneath it - that at least helps preserve the foam some longer. Also, this faux leather material is very bad with sweat and starts to become stiff quickly, causing it to crack and peel.
Really? I know they're better for airing but I always thought they're kinda worse because you only have that one thin layer of fabric to go through and they usually don't have replacement parts.
That one layer is far sturdier than the covering on a traditional office chair, at least if it's a budget model and not actual leather. You can also replace the mesh, but if you aren't using a super expensive model, I think it's easier to just replace the chair at that point. Anecdotally, I sit on my feet all the time and haven't had any problems with the mesh tearing.