The main draw from steam integration would be cloud backups without needing to fiddle with other services between devices.

i can see it both ways. for technical folks, nothing beats a package manager. in terms of getting your emulator i’m front of the masses there is absolutely no question that Steam is the platform that makes that easiest.

The OpenRgb goat as talked! Lmao

It's software and Steam exists to host software. It's like asking, "what's the point in Retroarch being on Google Play?" There are a few benefits, such as not needing to go to desktop mode on SD, using the Steam update system and cloud saves.

I can see the appeal. Of course it would be easier for the average user, for Steam integration (eg: with Steam Deck), but the real killer feature would be cloud save syncing. Add in the Community features, like forums (good resource), and the potential for guides, on getting settings optimized for a game.

It's already super simple to get up and running on the Steam Deck so it doesn't matter at all IMO. I'd rather get open stuff from open sources anyways.

Sometimes I think the developers of these kinds of projects sometimes drink too much of their own Kool aid -- yes emulation as a concept is legal but 99% of dolphin users are not ripping and emulating their own legal games and they know that

Sounds like they have no intention to:

And to all the armchair lawyers out there, the letter to Valve did not make any claims that we were violating a US copyright by including the Wii Common Key, as a short string of entirely random letters and numbers generated by a machine is not copyrightable under current US copyright law. If that ever changes, the world will be far too busy to think about emulation.