If you are a pipeliner you will have a helper, period.
And if you're a pipeliner you surely need a remote because the helper has enough to do (those guys/gals don't just stand around lookin pretty, thay work thier butt off) without running to your machine (that may be 100' away or more on a tie-in) to change your heat from bead to hot pass to fill to cap.
The tiny remotes sooner or later disappear in the dirt/sand/mud/snow/ice in my opinion. A cable or tidwell, mounted to a solid magnet on the pipe will work in all conditions from 130 degree to sub zero and in dry or wet or 5' of snow.
You can work a tie-in on mats and drop a cable/tidwell into 10' of water, drag it up by the cord, and go back to work. You can't do that with the designer remotes. I've seen them fail in a light drizzle. Can't make money that way.
My take on pipeline work only, your work may well differ.
JTMcC.