So, erm...speaking in name of the collective hive mind audience here...what did we do to earn the hard work of developers?
It's certainly not respect & gratitude (see OP). It's not money (the moment someone charges for an emulator is the moment someone decides to clone it and distribute it for free). It's not sexual gratification (that I know of).
So what else is there? I mentioned the intellectual challenge, but that's hardly anything we bestow on developers (it's not that hard to be smarter than a group of programming-illiterate twitter trolls)
PS: am I the only one who thinks your post could really be one of Boris Johnsson's hollow phrases?