There's also a problem in that it's unknown if it is legal to break the encryption on games in the process of emulating
The DMCA was written specifically (in part) in response to a previous legal victory for emulation that declared yes, it
is lawful to break copy protection for the purpose of emulation. That part of the DMCA was struck down too (it went along with the "communications decent act"-style bullshit that got invalidated too).
In the United States, you are explicitly permitted to make backup copies of media you own by existing copyright law, including by circumventing copy protection technologies if present, whether analog or digital. You are also explicitly permitted to publish the method to do so. The
only aspect of that the DMCA still has strength to prohibit is distributing secret keys you weren't supposed to have access to (this is why DeCSS, the DVD decryption function, is "illegal" to print or publish -- it's not the algorithm or code that "offends" the standing law, it's the actual decryption key which was a "trade secret" and is technically "copyright infringement" to duplicate).
Emulation is in all ways lawful in the US. As you correctly pointed out, though, companies don't care, and they know they can just litigate endlessly to drain their targets of resources to shut them down instead of actually winning cases and setting precedent (which they explicitly do
not want, which is also why any emulator dev targeted by this bullshit who lawyers up and dares them to actually take it to US court usually prevails).
All of this was settled in the mid-90's and the attempt by the DMCA to undo that consumer protection failed as well. They're no better than patent trolls now when they go after software developers, on even shakier ground than the shitty patent trolls are.
with a moustache?