Lot of money just for the convenience of not having to manually light them. It's pretty easy to light a fire pit manually, don't know about the other features. In almost all instances the remote feature can be added afterwards (it just requires the installation of an automatic valve on the gas line and an electronic pilot assembly), so one option would be for you to go with the manual and if you find it to be a problem, you could add the automatic capability to one or more of your "features" afterward.