[throwaway4338]

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.")