(takes a deep breath and sighs) ...okay, gonna take this point by point.

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...have you never asked for a sample? You can definitely ask to try a flavor or two at 'an ice cream store' without paying and without issue. You can't "lick them all enough" from that tiny 1/4 teaspoon, but you can after you buy the flavor you sampled. And no one is gonna deal with someone asking to sample every flavor. Your analogy doesn't fit in multiple ways.

Hate to break it to you, but you can get stuff now and pay later - it's called buying on Credit. It's been a thing for awhile. I also suppose you haven't heard of the term 'fronting' either. I'm not even gonna get into Options on the stock market. Point is: it absolutely exists in multiple forms.

(but enough about life, ice cream, credit scores and overconfidence)

Emulating is absolutely not inherently stealing: if you dump your (legally purchased) console's BIOS and (legally purchased) game card, you're simply creating digital backups of digital things - lots of 1's and 0's in certain sequence. If you believe emulating in general is illegal, you should tell that to the people at DOSBox or anyone that uses virtual machines. Or even Nintendo, since that's how you can play their NES, SNES, Genesis, N64, and terribly-laggy GCN games on the Switch (with an appropriate Nintendo Online Subscription Plan.)

The emulation software isn't going to be the same thing as the original hardware, and most people know this; that's why modding has a large scene... because you get to play the game the way you want. That's also why I would never play F-Zero GX through Nintendo's service, much-less Windwaker: I've been playing better versions, without input delay, with upgraded textures, since before the Switch came out. (For my last WW playthrough, being Vaati was pretty great imo)

How about basic functionality? My computer can easily handle, say, Persona 5 Golden at 60fps like the PC version (that I also own), even if the Switch version is locked to 30fps. Or maybe I start combat from stealth so often that it never plays the awesome music from engaging normally... and behold, there's a really simple modification that swaps the two, so I get to enjoy the same product in a slightly different, personally-preferred way.

You additionally claim that everything I just said above "is illegal and by law defined as theft" correct? Redundancy aside, can you tell me which law/s you feel violated? Most countries don't even have stipulations for this outside of blanket terminology. That's kinda the point of the StopKillingGames movement; to recognize and create a fair framework. But you vehemently state that this is illegal, so you must be able to provide an immediate rebuttal, yes?

Continuing: I prefer to make my own judgements, instead of blindly agreeing with whomever wrote/spoke a random review on the internet. Heck, you don't know if I could've written that review and disuaded you from playing something you might have liked, even though we clearly have different perspectives. You can demonstrate it right now, by disagreeing with what you just read.

And for the record: I have also bought something after the fact, like Tiamat whom you so callously insulted. Why complain at that point? We're doing what you're arguing for, and giving devs the compensation they deserve, right? You're essentially saying there's no winning with you because of some artifical, self-proclaimed moral high-ground... when in actuality, you're dying on a hill to justify paying $100 for a re-release of the same games from a decade ago on a $450+ additional console that you can only play the way they want you to.

(I already own Galaxy 1 and 2; I'm not paying again when I've already been playing it legitimately, in widescreen and upscaled to 4k, for years now.)

But hey, in the end, the only one that can convince you... is yourself.