> freelancers cannot be trusted with enterprise development as long term support infrastructure is required.
How is a company that has employees any better? What are you going to do, lock the original devs in the dungeon so they can't leave?
The reality is that getting the same set of eyeballs that did the first job counts as the kind of special expertise that only comes with a premium. Either the devs are being paid to watch Law and Order seasons for three months in-between your maintenance cycle, which is its own special kind of premium rate. Or, you have to outbid the project they've moved onto, plus any contractual penalties they might incur for moving off the new project, plus the Fred Brooks Tax for playing musical chairs with developers.
A company is a going concern which can provide legally tenable support guarantees irrespective of individual developers which is not possible for a freelancer. Project Management and enterprise processes are precisely there for this purpose. With a freelancer, you have no such guarantee. With enterprise outsourcing, cost is inflated, but business continuity is taken care. Reason why Bank of America would not look out for the next door freelancer while developing their mobile app. There is a reason for organizational forms to exist :)
> which can provide legally tenable support guarantees irrespective of individual developers
There is very little in software that is irrespective of individual developers, least of all support guarantees. It in fact hinges entirely on the current and former individual developers, and the quality of whatever notes or documentation were left behind. The mere fact that two parties negotiate that software should be performant and bug-free, does not make it so by force of will.
As for business continuity, most "app" companies have been around for 1-3 years, whereas the developers that comprise them usually have a decade or two at writing software professionally on the resume. There are more established "consulting" companies that pre-date iOS, but I'll let you in on a secret--they farm work out to freelancers. It's entirely a question of how many middlemen you want between you and the person ultimately responsible for getting the work done.
I don't know where you got the notion that software is just creative art form of its individual developers. In that case, software would have been a guild activity and the industry will not exist. Software has certain creative elements, but there is also ample engineering and planning involved. Don't fall prey to hubris of lone-wolves of yesteryear - the software universe is manned by millions of faceless workers who create, design, engineer, plan and produce complex software. It is not one or two individual developers who matter, it is the team. This is coming from a Software Architect who has designed and implemented dozens of complex projects with large teams. Nothing would be farther from the truth if I said, the success of my projects were solely because of me or two three lone wolf programmers! Software as an industry depends on the notion that the process of developing software is controllable and replicable. If you do not get that notion, then you can as well dream industrial revolution did not happen and software universe do not exist.
How is a company that has employees any better? What are you going to do, lock the original devs in the dungeon so they can't leave?
The reality is that getting the same set of eyeballs that did the first job counts as the kind of special expertise that only comes with a premium. Either the devs are being paid to watch Law and Order seasons for three months in-between your maintenance cycle, which is its own special kind of premium rate. Or, you have to outbid the project they've moved onto, plus any contractual penalties they might incur for moving off the new project, plus the Fred Brooks Tax for playing musical chairs with developers.