I don't think that's true. Emulators are legal, makign money off of emulator work is NOT illegal. Now is it actionable in terms of a lawsuit? I dont think that's going to work well. It would be a slam dunk if they were distributing games, but they aren't.
If anything this should show, woudl show, any savvy company, that there is a market for their games outside their hardware ecosystem that is ripe for exploring.
If Nintendo came out wih their own software store on PC with reasonable prices (don't try to sell me the original zelda for $60), I know I and a LOT of PC gamers would be spending hundreds of dollars on their store.
Give me a Zelda collection + BOTW running at unlocked resolutions (where possible, obviously probably not earlier zeldas) and I'd spend $150 on that, no problem.
Emulators, given that Nintendo would never do that, are the enxt best thing, and they at least allow Nintendo to see some of my money. I have zero interest in a Switch, Would not ever pick one up. And the WiiU experience would be a poor one. Once CEMU has it runnig well they'll be seeing my $60 though.
"any savvy company" I hate defending corporate strategy but how is making your games available on a platform other than your own anything other than a terrible move?
How many Switch consoles would be sold if a PC version was released? Not to mention displaying your own platform in an unflattering light.
The few hundred thousand sales gained would be comically not worth it.