I had a realization awhile ago that I might actually be driven to do homebrew stuff for very different reasons and with very different motivation behind it than most, which could explain part of why I seem to approach things very differently from other people (mostly in the form of emphasizing accessibility and modern design, and going for digital-only releases whereas most people other people heavily emphasize boxed releases with carts and manuals)

Other people talk about nostalgia and playing into that, but I think most of the actual nostalgia I have for older consoles is focused on DS, GameCube and Wii (and maybe PS1/PS2?) That's the window where I actually experienced enough stuff to make an impact (versus having Sonic 3 & Knuckles for Windows be my only exposure to Genesis for a long time) but where I didn't keep playing those games a ton later on.

For DS specifically there was also a now-missing social aspect tied to it where I did a lot of DS Download Play and PictoChat, and I don't really have people to do those things with anymore. I also used DS homebrew a lot but my phone does most of the things it did a lot better so I haven't had a reason to go back to it except to look back. Being able to connect online from pretty much anywhere is a big advantage over needing to find a WEP hotspot specifically.

For something like NES games, I played them on an NES, in Nesticle, in FCE Ultra, in PocketNES, in nesDS, on NES emulators for Wii, in Mesen, and it's not from a specific part of my life I can look back at because it's just always been there. But it's also just been the games specifically and I've never unboxed an NES game. Nintendo themselves keep referencing NES and rereleasing games from it too, sticking Super Mario Bros sprites in everything. But in contrast they don't put nearly as big of an emphasis on GameCube games, though they definitely don't just ignore it either, in the form of stuff like revisiting Luigi's Mansion with new games, and the Wind Waker remake, or the way Mario Kart has been featuring old tracks for a long time.

I think I just like the aesthetics a lot and I'm a nerd for the technical aspect behind everything and gaming history. I think being introduced to NES, SNES, N64, PS1, Game Boy Color, emulators and PC games all at the same time gave me a very different perspective where I just look at everything and play the things I like instead of looking at it as a progression where I keep moving onto the new thing.