In general I woud only ever have a monitor etc attached when the build was being done unless of course I had already built it virtually and it was a squirt job.
Most places have and I forget the system name but you hit the crt button twice and you can get access from a gold fish bowl 14" screen and a bio hazard keyboard. I never used it but have wired it up and then reallocated the fancy new monitor which had been purchased for the server room. Huge screams from the windows boys but as the racking etc came off the nix budget and it used to stop the CEO's PA moaning about doing spreadsheets on a Admin standard monitor they could go and sing.
On the subject of GUI's it used to fill me with joy when starting at a site to find the server room full of "pipes" screen savers. You just knew you were in for months of teaching folk that didn't know how to suck eggs how to suck eggs.