You're taking a very long and strange way to a place that you can reach as follows:

git pull remote
git annex get .

Which is just as shown in getting file content.

In particular, "git pull remote" first fetches all branches from the remote, including the git-annex branch. When you say "git pull remote master", you're preventing it from fetching the git-annex branch. If for some reason you want the slightly longer way around, it is:

git pull remote master
git fetch remote git-annex
git annex get .

Or, eqivilantly but with less network connections:

git fetch remote
git merge remote/master
git annex get .

BTW, notice that this is all bog-standard git branch pulling stuff, not specific to git-annex in the least. Consult your extensive and friendly git documentation for details. :)

Doh! Total brain melt on my part. Thanks for the additional info. Not taking my time and reading things properly - kept assuming that the full remote pull failed due to the warning:

You asked to pull from the remote 'rss', but did not specify
a branch. Because this is not the default configured remote
for your current branch, you must specify a branch on the command line.

Rookie mistake indeed.