If you ignore basic business principles such as risk adjusted reward, then on a shallow level it may seem so. 

Let the management company have the rewards and risks of managing a STVR business.

@Russell Brazil sounds like you're talking risk vs reward.

Some of these are actual physical items that require going to the property.Owning remotely with a great property manager is fine and rewarding!

That is not to say there are tremendous rewards for purchasing land if you definitely know what you are doing.

You need to determine what the cost of doing business is vs the reward and set your pricing accordingly.

Ultimately, these are investments, and your risk/reward should be the driving factor.Buying a 100+ unit will get you the efficiencies of being able to afford a couple full time people, right off the bat.  

While there might be startup costs for licensing and marketing, the potential to earn commissions from property sales can be rewarding.

A good contractor knows and respects this and knows that piss poor planning makes for poor performance just as well as the opposite makes for a long-standing and rewarding relationship.

All risk, little reward.