If I were to have enough money to develop a decent indie title, but no game development skills, would it be strange if I hire a company to develop the game, not as publisher, but as consumer/patron/game designer?

But you would be the game designer then?

Well, yes.

The hired company would be the developer, not you. You did nothing except provide money to the company. Kickstarter backers are not developers, they are fund providers, nothing more.

Yes it would be strange. And it probably wouldn't work out very well.

Your model seems to suppose that you have the game all worked out as an idea. And that the team you hire merely implements the idea.

In fact that is not how game development or any other creative endeavor actually happens. You have to work on it to actually conceive what is possible. And in working, the medium you are working with informs your idea.

The idea does not remain fixed and perfect but evolves. But it only evolves by working on it.

I imagine it would be similar to tailor made software. You talk to a developer team/ company about the software / game you want them to make you, you tell them how you want it to look and play, you tell them features you want and don't want. They will then give you a proposal with cost estimation to develop the game. And then you will make a deal / contract.

What decides if you are a designer or investor would be how detail you can provide information about the game. If you made written documents about it, write the rule of game and the story if it has story, draw concept arts, draw things like storyboards to show how you want some scenes to look like, then you could be considered as the game designer. But if you just go tell them "I want Bioshock in Space" then you're definitely an investor

Instead of hiring a company, you could set up a company - with you at the helm.
The programmers, graphic artists, sound engineers, etc. would be your employees.
I'd say, if you have the money to fund the development - that's the better way.

No. It's perfectly possible. The alternative would be to hire game developers directly but if you prefer them coming in an all inclusive deal with probably some premium costs attached, why not.

Using a film/TV analogy,I think you would be considered a producer with possibly a game designer or co-designer credit.

A basic question is how long the game will take to develop, and how much this will cost. Are we talking about something akin to Pacman, or more like a MMORG? In my experience, the development time for any project is roughly twice the estimated time.

But, as misteryo said, once the idea hits the code, it most likely turns out that some things work, but not others, and only if this part is skipped, etc. But with a solid basic concept, the game should be able to evolve with its core intact.

You can do it. Just remember that the time, expense, and stress are going to be much larger than expected, and that the resulting product will not perfectly fit your vision.

If you go down this road, I suggest doing a small project first to get experience.