While there have been tape-outs by universities, I think the learning curve would discourage traditional hardware companies focused on TTM. While bluespec has higher level abstractions, it also provides access to low level HW optimization features like multiple/gated clocks, integrate verilog etc. so I don't see any hindrances.
One needs to be familiar with both using SW abstractions and HW design, which iss a small subset that limits it's usage.