I wonder, though, if you might have a misconception of what the typical RPG publisher is like.
For example, Atlas Games has ZERO RPG designers on staff. No person in the office has "designing RPGs" as an element of their job description; game design and writing is probably the single easiest job to outsource when you are an RPG publisher. When we do any design, it's freelance work on our own time, in addition to our regular duties -- like shipping, receiving, janitorial, and accounting. Actually, apart from janitorial (which is a sort of "clean up your own messes" arrangement that everyone is responsible for), those are all part of MY job, at present. (There's only four of us in the office, and I have the other three busy doing other things making the most use of their individual talents, within the company's needs.) I make sales calls, pack orders, print UPS labels, generate invoices, monitor accounts receivable and prod the people who owe us money, pay bills, answer the telephone. I also oversee strategic development of our product lines and production schedules, lay out some products, proofread almost every book we send to press, review and approve printer proofs, maintain the office computer network, install and repair computer hardware and software, negotiate licensing agreements, approve translations, attend convention and trade shows, and more. I've been doing this for more than 12 years (and was doing it for Lion Rampant before I started my own company), and in some not-very-distant years past I was drawing a whopping $12k salary a year to live on (which still put me ahead of James, who was drawing zero and relying on other full-time employment to keep up with London's cost of living). Thankfully, I've been doing better than that of late, in no small part because (a) we were one of the first to recognize the opportunity of D20 and exploit it, and (b) I've decided that we deserve better and we're going to charge prices that make it possible.
As Wick says, this is how it is at most game companies. Game companies don't outsource because they usually can't afford it.
Two brilliant developments in the game industry were the Games Quarterly Catalog and Wizard's Attic. Both enabled game companies to do things that they couldn't afford to do, by having someone else pay. GQC exchanges ads for credit memos, which are sold at a discount to face value to distributors, who take them as credit against invoices from that manufacturer. This means GQC does not have to attempt to get cash out of a game publisher, which is a sure path to doom, and it's easy to persuade distributors ("Pay me $90 instead of paying the publisher $100"). Similarly, Wizard's Attic outsources warehouse and shipping work, in exchange for a percentage of sales -- a percentage they generally deduct from payments that pass through them. Again, avoiding the situation of presenting a bill to an RPG publisher and hoping for payment.
In general, traditional outsourcing doesn't work for RPG publishers because they depend on people who (a) are willing to work for cheaper than the outsourcing options cost (including what amounts to sub-minimum-wage work by volunteers who occasionally get paid for some of what they do), AND (b) are able and willing to do some pretty divergent tasks, such as copy editing, shipping, and computer repair. Writing and artwork most often are outsourced because writers and artists in this field are likely to pursue that work as a hobby, not calculating or minding how little they are compensated for the total time they invest. (And, wittingly or not, such freelance creatives effectively are extending credit to the publishers, often at their own peril.)
This isn't a "start-up" phenomenon. This is a whole-damn-life-cycle phenomenon for game companies. And no, the typical RPG publisher is not a "venture backed startup," nor is it typical that "employees get nice benefits if the company does well." Owners are often making less than the employees (e.g., ZERO), and so aren't often keen on giving away what they do have -- equity. And, just how much do you imagine the typical RPG publisher stock options would turn out to be worth after five years of toil?
The people who you imagine can simply be "outsourced" away, so that their wages don't really matter whatever they are, are absolutely essential for the existence of the game industry; they are the core workers that make companies exist. And they're often working for lower wages and benefits than they'd get if they were working full-time in food service (or sweeping the floors for a Silicon Valley start-up in some technology incubator).