This is the best solution I have found so far being a long time vim user. ssh + tmux + vim is all you need. Least amount of potential problems in this setup. vim runs locally on the server where "remote development" is being done, so there is very little friction in terms of getting it to do what you'd like it to do given all the plugins you can add to it for beefing it up.

I have heard stories from coworkers about work being lost when editing is done remotely instead of locally, so never ventured that way.

I'm definitely team emacs -nw, but I use the same tmux setup. Tmux's ability to reconnect to a session after disconnect is definitely it's killer feature.