When I was a kid, and you could still count on finding these things in the trash, I didn't even bother taking the RCA sets home because they'd (PC boards) crumble in your hands. Maybe people watched more TV in MI because the weather sucks, and they spend more time surfing in CA?
As for remote features, what did the RCA offer over the SC 600? If it was color/tint, I couldn't imagine those stepper functions being that useful anyways.