I doubt she is going to answer since the website has been sold twice since that post was made nine years ago. Anyhow, you can bypass the switches if you are just going to use the remote, but frankly, I'd not do that. You'd like the ability to to hard switch off the fans for maintenance things like replacing the bulbs. Just install the fan to the switched circuit. Work the switches so that the fan is powered and then just use the remotes. You can put a piece of tape over the switch to remind you to use the remote.

From the 2nd switch you only need two conductors, a hot and a neutral, going to the light. The hot will come from the "common" terminal on the switch. No reason to replace the cable, just leave the 3rd wire disconnected. Whomever wired it to begin with probably either had extra 14/3 around, or wanted flexibility, for example to power a fan and a light separately.

Wired incorrectly, while letting the fan use 2 return paths for neutral wouldn't be the end of the world, it is technically against code and unprofessional. The only way to wire the scenario with power first coming to the switch box is to also wire the fan to that first switch box. You would need 12/3 from the fan to the 1st switch box. Your other 2 switches controlling the fan would then be wired as a 3 way/ four way switch loop. Wiring needed 1st switch box: -12/2 from panel -12/3 to fan -12/3 to 4 way switch continuing to other 3 way switch. The light will then be using the red wire, connect it to the common terminal of the switch. Connect the white of the 12/3 heading to the other switches to the black incoming hot. At the 4 way switch, connect the white to the white heading to the last 3 way switch. At the last 3 way switch connect the white wire to the common terminal and the black and red to the other 2 terminals. At the 4 way you'll have 2 pairs of black and red to connect to the 2 pairs of terminals. The fan switch is easy, just connect a black to that same incoming hot wire that is tied to the white heading off to the other switches. Connect the black heading to the fan to the other terminal. The incoming power white wire will connect to the white wire heading to the fan. Yes it is complicated but it is the correct way to wire this. It simply comes down to the fan/ light not being allowed to use 2 different white/ neutral paths back to the source wire. The code only allows 1/0 and larger wires to be used in parallel, #12 wire is a lot smaller than 1/0.

Hi Greg, Could I bug you one more time? Old fan: 3 wires - black for fan motor, red for light, white neutral New fan: 2 wires: black for motor, white for neutral I've got three wires at the ceiling...black (always hot), red (controlled by switches), and white. If I hook up fan unit to black and white, switches are now wall ornaments. If I hook up to red and white, I can shut off power to the unit. So, I will be not using one wire at the box. Am I understanding this correctly? The documentation/manual with the fan assumes hot and neutral at the box. Thanks! :)