Yeah, I don't get the criticism of Nintendo here. Just because you like emulating games doesn't make Nintendo's claims bullshit or them total assholes. Emulating the biggest, most expensive, top selling games on a current console is s really, really bad look. It undermines all the arguments the emulation community makes to support its existence. I hope I can skip buying a Switch 2 and emulate on my Deck, but it looks like the prospects of that are probably ruined now by people who can't control themselves online.
The question whether emulation itself is legal, that is, whether you are allowed to produce software that emulates another system and does not contain any copyrighted material and was produced using white-room reverse engineering, has been settled for decades now. Nintendo's argument is that emulation, in every form, is illegal without the express authorisation of the platform owner and that is clearly not compatible with existing case laws in the US. To break it down, they say that you cannot extract any data from copies of games you buy, you cannot try to hack your Switch to access its firmware or production keys, and any system that enables you to use that data, firmware or keys is thus enabling illegal activity and there can be no legal form of emulation without express wishes of Nintendo.
Under this reasoning, no other emulator could exists either. Whether it's emulating a Sony platform, an Xbox console, or anything from the past, as long as the right holders don't expressly agree (i.e. license it)
That's why people are angry, this does not simply risk having the newest Zelda emulated on day one or whatever. It risks there being emulators available, period.
We either have laws that are based on general principles, or we live in a society where the rich and powerful can use lawsuits to destroy any effort they see as harmful to their interests, regardless of the legality. You can't have both. Given how the US legal system "works", I'm not confident that Nintendo won't succeed, regardless of how brazen their claims are