I probably should have clarified that my "point" here isn't really about genuinely replicating the behavior 1:1, but rather preserving the experience at a level

I probably should have clarified that my "point" here isn't really about genuinely replicating the behavior 1:1, but rather preserving the experience at a level where our culture & media can still be accessed in a form that maintains its core experience and intentions. Sure, an emulator might have certain bugs or idiosyncracies when compared to the real hardware, but you're still able to utilize a game or piece of software for its intended function. It still delivers on the promise of what it was created for. Looking into the future, this means that children of the year 4862 might still be able to play Super Mario Bros. It might get some pixels wrong, it might crash or freeze under some weird edge case scenarios, but the experience is preserved.