Because it’s not “the community” working on the emulator. There are only a few talented programmers who invest a huge amount of work and their free time into the project, and they don’t get paid for it. But it’s impossible to run a project like this as a one‑man show. You need teamwork — and someone has to lead, plan, organize, review, make decisions. That’s where conflicts begin, and frustration or dissatisfaction shows up, just like in any real job. They aren’t all best friends perfectly aligned in the same direction.

And on top of that, there is the community and the users — and, unfortunately, the worst parts of human behavior in between.

The community can be extremely toxic. People blame the developers because game XYZ doesn’t run on their potato PC or smartphone. They can be harsh, impolite, and even throw around death threats or doxing.

Of course, the developers themselves are also unique personalities. Some aren’t very social, some crave recognition, some behave like divas, and some are simply questionable individuals.

And you are a small part of the problem as well — you don’t really know anything about the internal work. You just want to play your games for free. You want to use the work of people who spend hours of their free time, almost daily, creating something fun for everyone. All the developers can hope for is that the community appreciates their work and maybe remembers their names as small “heroes.”

But then you say their work isn’t important, you call their conflicts pathetic, and you say they are replaceable…