Ok, so let's see so far...
Remington was long owned by E. I. du Pont de Nemours, a rather conservative, manufacturing-based conglomerate. Rifle and shotgun innovations were slow but very steady for decades.
Then du Pont sold Remington to the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.
In the drive to make money they made a number of serious missteps including:
The poor transfer of Marlin manufacturing expertise once they bought Marlin. This caused problems with the Model 60, their centerfire lever rifles, etc.
The release of the hideous R51 remake.
Problems with the Model 597 .22 rifle that took forever to iron-out.
(I think the "problems" with the M700 are largely due to hysterics.)
All that said, it does appear that Remington is now on the right track.
The Model 597 is in my opinion a better .22 rifle than the Ruger 10/22. Same for the Marlin Model 60. Take a good look at how Ruger has cheapened the 10/22 over the past 15+ years.
The R51 has now been reintroduced and it's not only an excellent pistol, it's priced right too.
The M700 is still better than the M77 from Ruger.
So they are learning, but it's been a painful process.