On remote hosts, is there a trick like having an Emacs-slave on the remote hosts? Something like SSH for Emacs, that makes use on remote systems seamless?
http://stackoverflow.com/a/20624538
(side note, this is one of the best parts of org-mode, it supports remote links to files. When you open the link, it will open it in a buffer and depending on your config, even switch to the correct mode).
On the same page there's a tip to set up dired (an emacs file browser) to browse the remote machine and open files within emacs.
You can also run eshell or ansi-term from within emacs, if that's what you need to do.
So I guess I don't find much need to run a client system, but I'm not 100% sure what your needs are.