can you load an app developed on a mac "in the cloud" onto your ios device? I'm curious if it would still be possible to develop for the iPhone with a non Mac laptop. Assume I buy some sort of "Mac in the cloud" solution (they exist), can I download apps I'm developing onto my iOS devices from Xcode on this "remote Mac" via my iCloud/developer account or do I need physical access to a Mac (usb cable) to do that?

This answer seems to indicate that it's not possible to load apps onto local devices from a remote Mac, but he's not sure.

EDIT: Actually, it seems to be possible to debug too, see my answer below.
Yes, if you have a paid developer account you can create signed IPAs which can be installed on the device remotely, or you can use TestFlight. If you don't have a paid developer account but your device is jailbroken you can install unsigned IPAs. Note that this doesn't include debugging which can't be done remotely.