I work in the creative industry and I can tell you with confidence that a huge number of design agencies take your money and simply outsource all of it to low paid freelancers overseas. You're basically paying them to forward emails.
@fesshole A lot of consultancies use freelancers and sub-contractors. I think of it as the "white middle-age man tax". Clients end up paying an extra 30-40% so they can deal with a white middle-aged man rather than a woman or non-white person doing the work. 🤷‍♀️