There is a tiny annoyance...when using a remote database with no local copy, you have to put the actual domain name into the form to connect at about Step 1. However, when you publish, you will get an error about too many connections, because dbcommon.php wants localhost in the $host variable.
"PHP error happenedTechnical informationError type2Error descriptionmysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: Host 'hostnamehere' is blocked because of many connection errors;"
If you just publish changed files, you only have to fix this once per project, but it's something that I have seen handled cleanly in CodeCharge back in 2001.
I haven't tried going back once a connection is made and setting localhost in the form...just thought of that.
Thanks,
Ken