They also painted a gigantic red target on their back with that.
The legal arguments against piracy are related to loss of potential income, but that's hard to prove.
Except when you accept donations and they can point to it directly. When the donations spiked around the time of the Tears of the Kingdom leak, Nintendo's lawyers probably got very excited.
I'm not saying the devs for emulators can't or should never accept donations, but you have got to be smarter about this.
There is an abundance of precedent that emulation is not copyright infringement and is not in any way illegal. You can absolutely make money on an emulator and there is absolutely nothing they can do.
Even if it's perfectly pristine and legal, it still paints a giant target on their backs. Even if someone is in the right, they need to spend way more on lawyers to prove it.