Welcome to the forums; a fresh voice is always a good thing. Particularly if it causes us to start thinking outside the box, and your post is certainly that.

With one exception, I don't anticipate using my tent poles for other things - I consider shelter a top priority, and don't want to try rigging my tent and fly without the poles if I break them. The one exception is that, if I use a frameless pack (like the Granite Gear Virga), I will use my tent poles inside my folded sleeping pad to create a "virtual" pack frame with stays. They do a good job of stiffening the pad, and helping transfer the weight to the hips. (Of course, with that pack, there really isn't much weight to transfer - it's comfort range tops out at 20 pounds.)

You may find that most people would go the other way - using something else they carry to double as tent poles. Many people do this with tarps, or tarplike shelters; they use their hiking poles as tent poles. Without some short, auxiliary pole, this limits the shelter shape to one or two basic types: A-frame or pyramid. (There are several modifications of the A-frame style.) If you want to see examples of this, go to the Tarptent or Six Moon Designs websites, among others. (I've done this with two styles: the flat rectangular tarp, usually pitched A-Frame style (perhaps with one end lower than the other), and the Integral Designs Silshelter, which is a shaped tarp that pitches mostly like an A-Frame with two closed ends.

I've also seen other uses, such as fishing poles, for hiking poles.

However, don't give up on the idea of using tent poles for something else - just because I wouldn't do it, doesn't mean it's a bad idea, or one not worth further effort.