Yes, I have heard this, too. It’s good to get a perspective from someone who knows carving because Roman stone carvers have had a major impact on typeface design. This is why font families with serifs are called “roman” (like Times New Roman). From what I’ve read, designs for stone carving were formalised in sand and clay with reed pens, and serifs also have the function in stone carving of making the text seem aligned by moving the eye along straight lines.