Case coloring with out the surface hardness can and is done.
The same process can be used, the bone/wood charcoal pack, the furnace, water quench, etc.
It's a balance of temp, time in furnace and quench techniques to get the colors w/o the hardness.
The advantage is less or no warping of the metal parts. No backers or reinforcement pieces needed to be inserted. Assembly was reletively easy though once in a while a part would warp. But the soft, non hardened surface made for easy refit.
The bad side of it is that the soft parts on a tightly fitted mechanism can gall and many started to show up with that problem.
Some hardness was needed especially on the low carbon steel shotgun frames and parts.
Ruger used a proprietary method to color their carbon steel SA frames. Not a case color/hardening method at all. A chemical coloring.
(Something similar was used on the Parker repro SxS shotguns from the late 80/early90's period.)
Turnbull tried to sell his CCH method and business to Ruger in the early 90's for use on their pistols but no taker.