I don't know, I am still processing the 'remote for a monitor' idea. Sounds like the 'remote for a car stereo' kind of thing. Is this for people with short arms perhaps?
Edge controls would be easier to reach. Side edge controls can be a problem because people often want to have things right beside their monitor, such as another monitor. Bottom edge might be reasonable.
For people with bigger monitors than mine (mine is 27") their arms might actually be too short to reach bottom edge buttons comfortably, assuming they sit farther back from the screen than I do from mine.
Anyway, the remote can be faster than buttons would be because it allows for voice commands. If I want to set the brightness to say 6 I just pick up the remote, hold down the mic button, and say "brightness 6". That's faster than navigating to the picture settings menu and adjusting the brightness there.
There used to be desks where the monitor was sunk in somewhat in and maybe the knobs were unreachable.