I'm a recent buffer convert. Now I use them in combination with splits because there was this module I had to modify for work that involved >8 files. My monitor wasn't big enough to comfortably view 8 splits, so I learned how to use buffers. Also, you can use buffers and splits over ssh, but not tabs.
You should be able to use graphical tabs over ssh with either X11 forwarding (ssh -X user@host) or by using vim's remote file syntax: gvim sftp://user@host/path/to/file (see :help netrw)
I should have been clearer, perhaps. I meant with servers that don't usually run X. However, that remote file syntax thing I did not know about. Thanks!
