They did some stubbing as needed, but that doesn't change how it's still messy and tedious for the backend team to support so many different combinations of data instead of just handing them a GQL.

Also, to be frank, frontend team was paid a lot less per head than backend team. Their expertise was just in building the UI according to what the backend team and designers gave them, and they were very good at that. Stubbing wasn't an efficient use of their time.