Right, but it's certainly easier for people who might not even know what "API" stands for, and that's quite nifty. As far as self-hosted frontends go, I can personally recommend SillyTavern[1] in the browser, ChatterUI[2] on mobile, and ShellGPT[3] for CLI. LobeChat looks pretty cool, though! I'll definitely check it out.
[1] https://github.com/SillyTavern/SillyTavern
[2] https://github.com/Vali-98/ChatterUI
[3] https://github.com/TheR1D/shell_gpt