I know this was effectively a bug, but it was quite nifty to fix something in a pinch. Maybe consider adding it back as a legacy setting (and leave it disabled by default)

The reason it was removed is because it caused crashes when the bots tried to navigate out of other surfaces that the player was not on.

Ah I see, got it.

The way it works now, the bots will still spawn if you use the remote view, but they'll spawn near you, rather than the place you're looking at.
So, as long as you're on the surface, they'll go there.

That would conflict with the request you made for a distance limiter though.

Since they would effectively spawn from the center of your viewport when using the remote view, the range could still apply the same as when in person