There is nothing that makes remote controlled volume control inferior in sound quality. If it is implemented with a motorized potentiometer, the quality is entirely dependent on the quality of the potentiometer, not on the motor whose only job is to twist the shaft just as your hand would also do. Even if your volume control is a rotary step attenuator, it is possible to physically move the dial under motor control (Ayre does this). Many very good attenuators are ladder step attenuators that are switched by relays, and the relays are always remote controllable.
It is so important to get volume set just right to get optimum sound quality and satisfaction, and that can only be done practically by remote control as you sit in the sweet spot and instantaneously hear the result. Remote control of volume is pretty much an essential feature, not merely a convenience. Without it, one tends to just live with something close to the right volume instead of actually determining what is the right volume.
And they look cool when the knobs move.
It is pretty slick (IME).
I had never seen one until I got a used preamp with this sort of remote, and I like it conceptually and also in action.