"Coming from a numismatic background I believe that the essence of slabbing is to establish authenticity and grading. If your chips do not have those two features then aren't they just framed?" ...

The 3rd important feature that Dave did not mention is that the slabbed authenticated/graded chips have been professionally imprisoned (sealed) in a tamper-proof plastic case (slab) and the chips can not be removed or substituted without destroying the slab.

Such is not the case with respect to air-tites or snap-lock type chip holders or Capital plastic screw-type cases in which many chippers preserve their chips.