Yes, I recently spoke to someone who's company did this so that they could provide SharePoint via narrow bandwidth (a satellite) for people who work in areas where the infrastructure has been destroyed and they need to share information quickly via laptops and satellite phones. Cool stuff.

Here is some more information on what is involved in the process of stripping down the UI:

http://cameronmoll.com/archives/2007/05/skinning_ms_sharepoint_with_st/