It also creates a ton of e-waste for a few hours of entertainment when you already have the compute power available to you in another portable device you already have to own anyway.
False equivalence (at least). Software we want to run is not just about raw compute available. Licensing of Nintendo's software aside, what if the pocket computer I have isn't mine? If I buy a Switch, I own it.
Just about everything creates waste. Being into any hobby is expending energy in pursuit of leisure. You're opting into excess from the jump.
I've messed around with emulators in the past. To be honest the tweaking and fiddling with things drove me mad. It was 100 times easier to just switch on a dedicated device and dive into a game.
Then again I'm not buying the latest games or consoles, I've got some other ones that I dive into every now and then for a distraction.
