Video Game Emulators vs. Consoles

In a comment thread on a post in AtariAge's forums, someone called people that collect video game consoles (hardware)... stupid.  I took offense to that, because I collect video game consoles.  This person was stating that using emulators was what retrogamers should be doing.  My problem with that is simple; a lot of people using emulators download games they don't own.  An article from Justin Pot goes into the legality of that.  

While I enjoy playing these old games on their original consoles, I am always aware that at some point, the machines will stop working.  The ColecoVision for example, it's about 34 years old.  How much longer can it work?  Granted, if I knew something about electronics, I could probably replace a fault resistor or capacitor, but even so, these things can't go on forever and I will have to give-in.  At some point, all of us will have to use emulators to play these games.  

Some of the games are available through Xbox 360 Game Room, but there's still so many consoles and games not in there.  And while Xbox Game Room does a great job of making you feel like you're in an arcade, it still isn't a retro game console.  I don't know, just putting some of my thoughts into text and hoping I can get over the inevitable.