2 points
They’re not lost, although they would be if Nintendo ever got their way. They have conclusively proven they’re not up to the challenge of preserving stuff, and luckily people have done so anyway - despite Nintendo’s attempts at fucking with it. The bummer is that you have no legal recourse.
2 points
So there’s two thoughts on this, yes the games are preserved thankfully. But also, they are culturally lost. If people don’t have easy access to creative works, those creative works become lost to all but the few who 1, even know they exist and 2, have the ability to aquire them
So yeah you and me, we can go grab images and emulators. I have a hacked wii and a retrotink. But that doesn’t mean the games aren’t lost to the vast vast majority
