Huh. I can think of six daycares/preschools right here in my smallish town that meet the criteria I listed. Maybe I'm lucky in where I live, but I definitely think describing them as unicorns is exaggerating.
I think nearly every daycare/preschool markets itself this way, and I've seen parents work very hard to convince themselves that the one their child is in is pretty good... because the alternative is crushing guilt. So I'll take that comment with an unhealthy dose of salt.
My DW sought work at several of these in three geographically diverse areas during DD's early childhood, as a way to provide some extra cash while still being available to DD. Her experiences were universally awful.
In one such experience, DW was assigned to the baby room, where she was instructed that she was not to comfort the children or interact with them. The babies were treated to hours of feeding, burping, changing, and social isolation. Meanwhile, DD3 was getting the usual Lord of the Flies experience in another room.
