rather than setting up a multisig, would it be good to split my seed words into two remote locations? or is this idea flawed in some way?
No.
Never split your seed words, and never create any order changes with previously generated seed words, many people lost coins this way.
If you want alternative way for multisig setup than you should check out Slip39 aka Shamir Secret Sharing.
Any backup should have multiple copies without single point of failure.