...so the DAC/Amp might work...but only if the volume control had a remote....
Pivoting in this direction (and leaving business motivation speculation alone, because
that is a topic
I could get sidetracked on all day long!

), this is something I thought an odd exclusion when I saw Tommy's DAC DAC with volume control considering it needs literally only volume control as a user adjustable function (no input switching, etc.). Couldn't something like the Alps remote volume system packaged from Bent Audio (
http://www.bentaudio.com/index2.html) for example be put in place of the manual pot driving the digital volume control already in the DAC DAC with VC as an easy turn-key solution to adding remote volume to it with no change in either the signal path or volume control implementation other than sorting out how to feed the 3-5-ish VDC to the remote control board? I've seen similar even less expensive setups in quick searches of ebay, aliexpress, etc.
Sure, this doesn't satisfy the folks looking for a more feature-rich remote controlled solution to an all-in-one "everything integrated", but if the target is just getting volume up and down without having to get up from the chair, this seems like a pretty quick and easy fix with no down side?