No, it doesn't. VFDs produce a chopped sine wave, not a true sinusoidal 3-phase wave form. In that sense they do not produce true 3-phase power.
And they can only operate inductive (motor) loads. In other words, if a piece of 3-phase equipment has other loads connected to it--transformers, resistive loads, etc., a VFD will not work, wereas "true" 3-phase will work.
A VFD combines the best in efficiency and cost to power a 3-phase motor load.
Static phase converters are cheaper than a VFD, but do not produce true 3-phase power and will only run a motor load at 1/2 to 2/3rds of the rated horsepower. Static phase converters generally can't handle heavy starting loads such as air compressors.
Rotary phase converters produce better three phase power but are generally more expensive than static phase converters or VFDs (except when compared to the cost of the very sophisticated vectorless VFDs or for VFDs for large HP loads).
Digital Solid-state converters (Phase Perfect) produce the best 3-phase power; in fact, better than utility-supplied 3-phase power, but are VERY expensive by comparison to VFD, static or rotary converters.
It's cheaper for the utility company to provide single-phase power to residential areas. Fewer wires, for one thing; and in general, most residential uses don't require the large motor loads that would benefit most from 3-phase power. In addition, 3-phase service disconnects, panelboards and breakers are considerably more expensive than equivalently-sized single phase service disconnects, panelboards and breakers.
