I would say it could be less lying and more the various "authors" having not even the slightest idea what their creations actually do.

This is exactly the approach we've been taking with Metal Gear Solid. We’ve been working on a fork of mgs_reversing (which is targeting 100% matching decompilation of MGS Integral) to bring the game natively to microcontrollers: https://github.com/davidmonterocrespo24/mgs_reversing

Instead of high-level emulation, the decompiled C source is compiled directly to Xtensa machine code for the ESP32-S3. We replaced the PlayStation SDK/GPU/GTE with custom software routines, running on a DIY handheld built around a Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 Sense.

To speed up development without constantly flashing hardware, we run the compiled firmware image directly inside a browser-based hardware simulator CLI (velxio-cli) to verify serial outputs and execution in seconds.

Having 100% matching C code makes native ports to embedded platforms completely feasible without relying on heavy JIT/interpreter glue.