That I can confirm firsthand. Recompiled code is just prebaked CPU instructions in another language that can be compiled. That’s all there is to it.
So for modding, it’s only slightly easier technically as you have the option to inject code easier than on the emulated platform and providing facilities for the host OS to load them (dynamic libraries, which is a big benefit which most of the slop coders don’t fully understand how or why it is).
For proper modding research, a decompilation (of the portions of the game you want to mod very extensively) is needed.
For a simple aspect ratio and UI fix patch (and other simple improvements) - that is achievable on the original code itself via cheats/code injection (anything that has an FPU should work, PS1 and older are harder generally). You generally do not need a whole recompilation/decompilation for this kind of a thing.
Sometimes even the original hardware without any performance boost can handle it, but most of the times this is where emulator’s overclocking and memory extension features come into play to help.
Honestly, in my opinion, machine code hacking is not that hard. It takes way less time and energy to do it than this to achieve the same “improvements” with way lower barriers to entry.
There’s more questions to ask beyond “who is playing the recomps/decomps”
Regardless of AI, these questions pop up:
Even before the AI boom, I asked these questions. Some games are indeed an enigma (Sonic Unleashed is a perfect example), but a lot of others are just… there I guess.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s nice to get a better version on PC with keyboard and mouse support and better graphics and undefined aspect ratios, that’s all fine. But you have to understand one thing and one really big thing - not all games need or even deserve this treatment. A lot of people are just fine with what an emulator offers already.
If you think that “oh all of those features are impossible or really hard to do without a recomp” - think again. I can tell you from first hand experience as a reverse engineer and developer that you can do a lot of those things without doing a decomp (and especially a recomp). All on the original hardware’s limitations sometimes, too. It’s provably quicker and easier to do (some of) those hacks on top of existing games rather than recompile it.
As for the “broken games in emulators but are fine in recomps” - those fixes and hacks should’ve been presented to the emulator project first because it can not only fix this one game, but sometimes fix others too.
Ports onto platforms like PSP or iOS sure are nice to have, but be honest - it’s not the best way to play these games. It’s not even a good way to play it portably a lot of the times either. A lot of the times, those same people have other means to play them too. I don’t think most gamers even care about an hour or two of extra battery life playing the game because it’s more power efficient than running the emulator.
The more and more you think about this, the more irrational it becomes to spend time and energy on doing these things.
And to a certain degree - it always was. It was always a “just because you can” type of deal. Some were doing it for clout (even before AI, yes, there are talented people who also are obnoxious doing it), some for the love of the game, etc.
Now - you just have a lot of people doing it for clout and opening up dono pages in ko-fi and patreon. To them, this isn’t a hobby. It’s a business venture. It’s a job. And that is where the spirit of doing this kind of thing is undeniably and truly lost.