If you want to put the effort into it, google “pan fried dumplings recipe” and compare how many tell you to fry before steaming. I looked through the first 20 and every single one says to fry first. I’ve also bought hundreds of bags of dumplings and never seen instructions to steam first.

The only time I encountered it being the norm was working at a Chinese/Japanese restaurant and from what the chefs said, it’s pretty standard in the industry to par boil then fry as opposed to the traditional way.