What's are the advantages of having the pilot in the cockpit?
The concept would be a hard sell for both passengers and non-passengers alike. You not only risk lives in the air, but on the ground as well. I would not want a fully laden B747 flying above me. The biggest reasons are:

The human pilot in the cockpit has a vested interest in performing a safe flight. The vast majority of pilots are not suicidal (99.999%). The remote pilot on the ground does not have the same incentive. 

Any computer system can be hacked. This would turn said B747 into a weapon.

A remote pilot does not significantly lessen the chances of human error. The remote pilots are still human. And, the programmers of the software needed to make remote piloting possible are equally human. 

Satellite communication is not entirely fool-proof. It would have to be perfect to be considered safe enough to warrant that hazard. The current GPS interference is an example of that. That is one of the reasons why GPS is still considered non-precision for flight. You have to have the capability to use traditional NavAids even when you are using GPS.

When (not if) crap hits the fan (or fan disk), and there is a systems failure, the best chances to preserve life is to have the human pilot in direct control. Think of what happens in an electrically power failure, a systems shutdown, a loss of communications capabilities, etc.