The problem with game discs is that they rot. Some of them rot faster than others, but all of them shall eventually rot.

The problem with hardware is that it is scarce, and ultimately dies.

The problem with emulators is that they emulate. We can work to make it the same, but it is never going to be the same.

Even if the math all maths just like they did (bugs and all), and it takes precisely as long, and it shows up precisely at the same time in the same places as it did on the original hardware...and even when things like input latency are nailed down to nanosecond accuracy and the clocks are all just dead-nuts on: The code may run the same way, but the system is still not the same.

Part of the reason it's not the same is we haven't even touched the analog components yet and all and all of the things they do, whether amazing or ugly. (And no, improving the analog bits through simplification is not necessarily the sane goal at all. Improvement and emulation are different targets.)

Emulation is useful. It's great, actually. Right now, a person can think about that old PS2 they used to have and get started with playing some of their favorite games yet this afternoon. That's awesome.

But preservation, as an effort to keep old hardware to keep working as time marches on? That's a wonderful thing in its own right. The better we understand the old hardware, the more-able we are to preserve it and keep it running.

Getting past the layers of deliberate fuckery helps us to better understand what goes on behind the curtain, and that has now been achieved.