A ham radio is good to have, but in many remote places will be useless if you can't reach a repeater. I would definitely take a PLB and not rely solely on my HT if I was going somewhere remote.
With some elevation (like standing on your car) and a cheap 6 foot antenna (made of PVC for $10 or so) I've hit repeaters 100s of miles away. But sure if you are in worse terrain you might need a HF radio instead of a 2M/440cm HT.
The radio is a nice thing to have, but it isn't a realistic substitute for a PLB when you leave civilization. Even if the satellite beacon is received only intermittently and can't get GPS fix or doesn't have GPS the system will figure out where it is in maybe an hour or so anyway (Doppler measurement) and any single message is an unambiguous call for rescue.