Maybe not on Rokslide. Elsewhere, it’s common.
(Exhibits A, B, and C: Joseph Von Benedict, Nathan Foster, and Ron Spomer)
I know Nathan Foster so don't want to put words in his mouth. But he recommends many different types of bullets and certainly has used his fair share of frangible projectiles like AMAX, etc. He had even recommended to me to try some 178 AMAX in .308 and that's a frangible hand grenade on animals. Almost too much damage due to fragmenting and I stopped using it.
But .223 is used on a mess of deer in New Zealand and has been for many many years. Also, he focuses a lot on long range hunting and has very specific parameters he wants to see in terms of terminal ballistics at range.
Just a guess, but I doubt he'd recommend the average hunter use 223 just due to bad experience with 222 down here in NZ. Back then deer cullers were using that calibre and everyone that thought they were a deer culler decided to use the calibre and wound a bunch of stuff.
I have his book The Practical Guide to Long Range Hunting Cartridges (Second Edition Published 2017). In the .223 section he states:
"...we must start by understanding a basic rule - the smaller the bore, the higher the velocity needs to be in order to create disproportionate caliber wounding. In other words, the faster it goes, the bigger the wound.
But with modern long and heavy match style bullets, we can partially break this rule. (emphasis added)...
We can sacrifice some velocity and use mechanical wounding (large bullet fragments) to obtain a wide wound while the long bullet and gradual fragmentation allow for adequate penetration. This performance is however dependent on the ability of the bullet to expand at mild impact velocities."
He continues:
"...I now find myself leaning towards the use of heavy match bullets in this cartridge for all hunting, not just extended range work..."
"I do not generally recommend the .223 for long or even intermediate long range hunting of medium game. But there are some who prefer to use it in this manner. For those who whish to explore this avenue there are now five projectiles I recommend for intermediate long range hunting of lighter medium game. These include the 73, 75, and 80 grain ELD-M and the Sierra 69 and 77 grain TMK."
So there you go, written in 2013, with second edition in 2017. He's certainly aware of this trend.