And it's not really the same as a globally distributed company either. Plenty of companies have large software development offices in places like Eastern Europe which is a very different situation from outsourced call centers (cost is still one of the drivers, though not the only one).

I think that's splitting hairs.

For example a few years ago I worked with a programmer from India who was part of a "remote consulting company" based in the Netherlands. The experience of working with her was identical to working with the larger offshore companies based in India. As in, time zone, cultural and communication barriers were substantial and disruptive to our productivity.

Can you provide an example where this worked for a large scale company? I’ve heard this at smaller companies but nowhere big

One business process that is generally carved out well is customer support. Many large corps have offshore support centers. A sector that comes to mind is mobile-comm companies (e.g. T-Mobile).