Since gaming consoles that are the primary target of emulation nowadays were
not meant to be general purpose computing devices, I believe it makes the
issue somewhat different. You wouldn't want the four freedoms with the
software that runs on your microwave oven, or the watch. The products' usage
in the case of oldschool consoles from the first Ataris to the N64 doesn't
include installing anything, be it the OS, the drivers or the actual
applications.
While the games are all non-free software, I can't help but think it is less
of a problem than, say, some program that you would install on a normal
computer.
After all, there is no place for malicious code to be implemented. What would
it do? Spy on you? There is no data in the consoles memory except what comes
on the cartridge and what has been put there factory-side. So malicious code
would be bugs. You lack the freedom to patch the bugs, that's true, but you
would need a highly complicated setup for reading the memory on the cartridge
which you don't have and will not likely invest into anyway.
