This must be a “heartland” trend that goes beyond the Quad Cities, because Pagliai’s Pizza in northeastern Missouri (near the Iowa and Illinois borders, and 200 miles southwest of the Quad Cities) serves it the same way, with little crumbles that get locked into the melted cheese rather than sitting on top. That’s the only place I’ve ever seen what you describe.
BTW, mea culpa for raising an eyebrow at the idea that the Quad Cities could have their own pizza style. I honestly thought it was too small a metro area to warrant such a thing. But per Wikipedia, the Quad Cities CSA is #92 in the nation, and there’s a pretty steep dropoff once you get out of the top 100: Fargo-Moorhead, which I would have guessed to be bigger than the Quad Cities, is #116 and is barely over half as populous. Huh!