This sounds quite drastic. To be fair, quite a few of the restaurants at Disney are outsourced to 'operating participants', but it's hard to see this being in the interests of staff or customers.
One of the problems with the HB Leisure games and arcades, and the Pic Solve photo booths, is that if anyone complains about them, the official response is to shrug and say, "That's not really anything to do with us because it's an external company'. Food can be quite a common issue, or at least form part of a bigger complaint. If people go to Guest Services and just get a shrug and a 'that's nothing to do with us' response, they're obviously not going to be very happy. At least that's how it used to be. I haven't been to a Merlin park for a few years.
I'm out of the loop with how the Merlin parks are managed behind the scenes, but it used to be that the concessions (HB Leisure and Pic Solve) didn't get the Magic Pass (free tickets) or invited to the main staff parties. They also weren't included in any incentive schemes. I'm not sure if that's still the case. The general view was that working for a concession was worse, rather than better. Although there might be some perks if the concession are more generous about giving the staff free food on their shifts. It did also sometimes pan out that staff would get fired from Merlin over some kind of misdemeanour, but could then get a job with HB Leisure of Pic Solve. If the staff do get a worse deal, it might make it easier for Merlin to fill their positions, but it isn't good for the resort as a whole if F&B's short staffed, or if morale's lower.
I think staff not getting the free tickets (if that’s the case. It might not be) is a shame partly because it’s a good perk for the staff, but also I think staff can give better service when they visit and know the product.