Why do you say that? Remote is remote, is I'm hiring remote, why would I care if the person is in Spain, Portugal or anywhere else? I'm sure you have context behind your comment and it would be great if you shared it.
I think the comment was referring to work remotely for a Spanish company. In Spain, remote work culture is almost nonexistent.
Taxes and compliance requirements.
At least for US companies, I do see a lot of remote positions that specify that candidates must be US based. Not sure why...
Timezone alignment. General cultural missunderstandings. People got burned by outsourcing, the original remote work.
Taxes. Travel. Time zone.
many companies, especially in US, misuse the term "remote" to mean "remote but only in US" or "remote but at least 2 days per week in office". They just want to ride the hype wave without actually changing anything