VIM supports editing remote files via scp and ftp. Just use {scp,ftp,http}://$host/$path to open a remote file though http support is read-only afaik.
I must admit i don't use it regularly (but i use tramp mode quite often) but you can browse remote directories, change between hosts without mounting a directory first or open files not lying in the current mountpoint. The only major drawback is if you don't use ssh keys or use programs which don't support gvfs/kio