Like anything else in business this seems like a case where some hard, one size fits all rule is occasionally misapplied.
It's really just a matter of how easily can you see that A led to B.
Release of what?
For banks, it's the same thing. It can be external: my bank added a feature that let me enter and see projected expenditures and incomes so I can see my future balance, it's an effective aid to my budgeting. It can be internal: Like a POS system, making it easier or harder for tellers or lenging agents or others to do their job. Giving them more accurate and up to date information with reports generated daily or down to the minute, instead of the historic weekly or monthly batch reporting.
Car manufacturers have control systems developed by IT, same results as above on a new release.
Customer support is certainly treated as a cost center, but it oughtn't be. Mary Poppendieck (author of this article) has a good example in one of her books where the customer support center improved profits by being able to aggregate and identify the majority of customer complaints. This led directly to improvements in infrastructure and delivered systems that reduced overall corporate costs (less rework, customers were happier, more sales).