Yes, the "harmonic" and "melodic" so-called scales are more like common musical patterns that arise by "borrowing" chromatic alterations from the parallel major scale for the sake of better resolution. This also explains why the "melodic minor" is different when going upwards vs. downwards; since it's not really a "scale" in any structural sense, and the idiomatic alterations are different when one is "resolving" in one direction or the other.