Basically, your idea is that rather than learn game design yourself, you'd pay people to do it for you.
Welcome to the real world.
Here's news... Bill Gates was a programmer. He did most of the work himself. Only after he succeeded did he start his now huge company, Microsoft. The truth is, if you go down the road your thinking of, your definitely not a game developer - you're a businessman, making investments and hoping you get the profit. And the reality of the situation is, you can only realisitically become a businessman if you have experience and a reasonable position to start off with.
You can't start a business with nothing - it requires skill, or money to start off with, and even besides that is requires experience. This is why most people find college an important part of education
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would it make more sense to round up and consult established mechanical engineers or go get a masters degree in mechanical engineering so that you could build it all yourself and answer all your own questions?
I'd get a master's degree. Why?
1. I need to know if my idea is realistic
2. I need to make realistic estimates of the costs that this will require
3. I need to start off with something, either money or skill to speak of, and without a degree I would have neither
4. I have no experience on how to go through with an idea, and how to deal with the experts. How do I know they have the experience to tackle the job? How do I know they're doing things right? How do I motivate them to work? How do I get them to work for me when they've been offered more prestigous jobs?
5. People want a steady project to stick to. Noone wants to get involved in a failure. Even with money people will hesitate to help you, because it just might not work out.
6. You might end up losing money (even with a good product) if you don't have the experience in business
Now, that's an analogy to game design. You can make the links yourself 
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