Polo shirt with a design only on the front?

Hopefully there’s a factual answer for this…

I saw this in JC Penney’s and was wondering about it. They had a Docker’s short-sleeve polo shirt that had a cross-striped pattern on the front, and a plain back. My question: is this a style thing, or is it meant to be worn under something? Actually, is there anything a polo shirt is appropriate to be worn under?

I have a couple of shirts with horizontal stripes on the front but not the back. One is about 20 years old, I got the other last year for Christmas. So it appears it is a style that has been around for a while, it is just not a real popular style.