Serious question: has any product or service of lasting value and success ever come out of an approach like this? It runs counter to most commonly-held beliefs on how great ideas turn into great products.
absolutely, but nobody talks about this. This is simply handing off requirements, contracting them out. Your question can be rephrased as "has any product or service of lasting value and success ever had any part of it contracted out" and clearly the answer is yes. Not everything is built in-house. People don't usually mention it however.
(it's not accepting my edits on the original comment, I am trying to change "aren't worth much anywhere" (which sounds like a value judgment) to "don't command a high rate anywhere.")
I can confirm, though I cannot legally name the products.
As a hint, it's pretty probable (if you live in US) that your healthcare financial information is managed by a system that I took part in development while being 2-grade student freelancing at the other side of the Earth. And many my friends did the same.
I've seen the biggest internet websites have their major customer-facing features developed by my friends, yet everybody thinks it was done in California.
(it's not accepting my edits on the original comment, I am trying to change "aren't worth much anywhere" (which sounds like a value judgment) to "don't command a high rate anywhere.")