Forking a repo is not the same as developing it. Any idiot can rehost the existing source code, but all the developers with knowledge of the code base and project just got axed by Nintendo.
This fork doesn't even have the code for the dynarmic submodule under the externals/dynarmic directory. MerryMage/MerryHime took that down with Yuzu, and it's a core part of the JIT recompiler.
Not to mention, the commit history was wiped clean while a new Patreon was created before even touching a line of C++ code (and subsequently realizing it's missing most of the dependencies).
Also made communities, setup a patron and donation mails.
This just seems like a dude wanting to scam money out of it and/or taking credit for continued development, disregarding any effort made before the fork.
One of the problems with Yuzu (to nintendo) was that it contained the encryption keys pulled off nintendo switches. By removing commit history you actually can permanently remove this part of the code. There might be a more clever way to do this. Thats my best guess.
Although a good guess, this looks more like the work of someone who's in way over their head and barely knows how to use git. Probably just downloaded the repo as a zip instead of cloning it through git. At least that's the vibe I get from their commit history and other repos.
So basically, this person did the right thing on accident.
Nope, Yuzu was never distributed with keys. It could use keys that were provided by a user, but you had to add those yourself. Yuzu’s setup page even had (outdated) instructions on how to dump keys from your own Switch.
Just like how PlayStation emulators aren’t ever distributed with the BIOS, because sharing the BIOS is considered piracy.