I'm not sure if this is the correct answer; I've got the same lack of "server status" display on half of our servers, but haven't had time to pursue it myself.

According to BoL, WMI is used for the "Windows service level" monitoring and control for SQL Server. This is completely outside the SQL Server connection and permissions. There is a separate way to grant permissions for "remote access" to a server via WMI; check with your Windows sysadmin, and this is also documented in BoL (look under WMI).

SQL Agent can also define Alerts based on WMI, and SSIS has WMI query capabilities as well. SMO and PowerShell also use WMI for some of their server management functions. So its worth checking out.