My 95 Lance 880 has the older non remote Atwood jacks. They do run without the battery. That is according to the manual. Although I have run them a short distance with the battery disconnected I have not tried to remove the camper. The manual says it can be done, so if your battery is dead but you have shore power or propane for the generator you can still load the camper.
Other interesting thing in my Lance is that the 6 cu ft Dometic reefer will also run on propane only. When there is no power to the computer circuit board there is a default temperature that the reefer maintains according to the owner's manual.
Since there's only room for one group 27 battery these features are good to have. Might be a few advantages to older units.