Hi RickNY,
Yes … it’s one of the reasons that I’m not a big fan of airbeds (see this article). People that use softer airbed settings are usually looking for more “comfort” and pressure relief but changing the firmness of the air bladder is only adjusting the support core of the mattress not the comfort and transition layers which are more directly related to comfort and pressure relief. Softer settings for the air bladder can lead to sagging in the middle of the air bladder under the heavier parts of the body which in turn can lead to sleeping out of alignment while it doesn’t change the firmness of the comfort and transition layers on top of the air bladder.
There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support” and “pressure relief” and “feel”.
Phoenix