Why developers refuse doing project installation is an interesting viewpoint and I have worked on projects where it is true. There is another culture with similar results in companies that cannot/dare not let developers meet the clients for political or other reasons, I have also experienced this.
On the other hand when you change expectations and make it part of the normal developer role to do installations, to get the bigger picture and to meet the clients then magic starts to happen.
It's a bit like the leap in productivity and quality when you start to use your own products (typically known as eating your own dogfood). It is when your developers get to really know how what they have been writing is installed and used in the real world that they suddenly find lots of ways to make leaps in its functionality, maintainability and reliability.
Of course there are issues, for some developers this is certainly scary and this is a going to be a process that requires time, training and support. But in our experience it is most definately worth it.
In a climate where so many development roles are being outsourced to other countries this is one way to keep busy, if your developers can't speak to clients then it does not matter where the developers are. But if your developers can speak to clients, can install, can troubleshoot, can integrate then being a local option has significant advantages to the client and therefore to you.
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