...but breading the steak wasn't an issue?
...and calling it "chicken fried" wasn't either?
...and smothering it in vomitous "country gravy" made with flour, butter (for the fat), sometimes bacon grease, sometimes breakfast sausage, milk, salt, pepper, and sometimes chicken broth wasn't an issue?
Steak is breaded to mask the the low quality of the cut of beef - the same low quality cut that would warrant condiments such as ketchup.
The associate you were dining with may have used ketchup, because being from New Jersey, they may been trying to get it as close to steak parmigiana as they could.
Yes, it’s low grade. It’s beaten to a pulp or ran through a machine and breaded like chicken, and breaded and fried. If done right you can cut it with a fork. Gravy is the only way.