Yeah, on retro arch and specific emulators, you are right. I've been messing around with emulators since about 1997 and it's only in recent years I've been using retro arch, I miss the days of zsnes and genesyst. I actually think retro archs UI is pretty awful. Also, I don't get why their website reads like an infomercial. For example they really want to make a point that FPGA emulation is no match for retro arch, which is silly, they both have advantages and drawbacks. Maybe they make money off retro arch, not sure.
The layer of abstraction point you make is spot on, I've been using my steam deck a lot, I'm using emu deck which installs emulation station which installs retro arch. Configuration is scattered everywhere.
I haven't mucked about much with individual emulators in a while, so I'm not sure if they'll support run ahead latency reduction features, that's the one big thing I like in retro arch.
Edit: my main issue currently is figuring out what settings I should be using for particular cores/emulators. The steam deck screen isn't vrr, but it does allow refresh limiting. So that is its own set of problems. Similarly I think I'm using the right settings for my pc vrr set up, but never certain.
Actually, I spend more time fiddling with setting Vs playing games!
The layer of abstraction point you make is spot on, I've been using my steam deck a lot, I'm using emu deck which installs emulation station which installs retro arch. Configuration is scattered everywhere.
I haven't mucked about much with individual emulators in a while, so I'm not sure if they'll support run ahead latency reduction features, that's the one big thing I like in retro arch.
Edit: my main issue currently is figuring out what settings I should be using for particular cores/emulators. The steam deck screen isn't vrr, but it does allow refresh limiting. So that is its own set of problems. Similarly I think I'm using the right settings for my pc vrr set up, but never certain. Actually, I spend more time fiddling with setting Vs playing games!