>No, it has its place, I guess, but it could just as easily have returned an object with 2 properties.

Don't see that as being so elegant. Compare:

internal class Program
  {
    private static void Main()
    {
      string s = "123";
      int i;
      if (!int.TryParse(s, out i))
      {
        //error
      }

      TryParseReturnObject ret = JohnsTryParse(s);
      if (!ret.success)
      {
        //Error
      }
      i = ret.result;
    }

    private static TryParseReturnObject JohnsTryParse(string s)
    {
      int result;
      bool success = int.TryParse(s, out result);
      return new TryParseReturnObject{result = result,success = success};
    }
  }

  public class TryParseReturnObject
  {
    public int result { get; set; }
    public bool success { get; set; }
  }