You can just as easily run pirated games on real hardware as you can a steamdeck, and vice-versa. You're conflating emulation and piracy. Emulation does not mean piracy as it is perfectly legal (and moral) to dump a game that you own so that you can play it on your preferred hardware.
Running pirated games on real hardware requires tracking down a hackable Switch, which is not completely simple. I've seen torrents floating which contain Switch games alongside pre-setup emulators so you can just download and go.
