What they were trying to say is that physical backup controls are often incomplete and inconvenient, just like how you can control a TV using the buttons on it

What they were trying to say is that physical backup controls are often incomplete and inconvenient, just like how you can control a TV using the buttons on it but doing so is far less effective than using the remote. The idea is that making physical controls the primary interface (rather than the backup) for critical tasks means that more effort would go into making them ergonomic and effective.