Yes hi you called?
It's, like, the very first result in this subforum. However, the complaint of a lack of a "real explanation" for what Libretro and RetroArch exactly are is a fair point. I'll make the relevant changes in the thread. But next time, do try and ask in the thread itself; it's relevant to RetroArch, no real need to be afraid!
No offense, just wanted to make that clear.
I wouldn't agree though that the Libretro-based cores are "lazily ported". In fact, many of them are built around the Libretro API spec, to take better advantage of the software. However,
hardware support is indeed hit-or-miss depending on how competently ported the Libretro API itself was to begin with. In the Vita's case, it's okay, but makes no special use of the Vita's hardware outside of an optional sound processing speedhack (DSP support). This would be something to complain about, if the Vita actually
had specifically designed emulators for it, but... it doesn't. So, unlike the PSP or Wii, where you do have options that are debatably better and do more with the hardware given, RetroArch is the only option, and is fairly streamlined to the point there's very little that makes the emulation unique, outside of simple accurate emulation.
The user interface(s) is/are something you'll either grow to love or absolutely despise with time. I encourage anyone interested to at least give RetroArch a try, spend a few minutes configuring, and see if it works for them. If it doesn't, no harm done.