Most emulators have just been built/developed with what people are used to, or what they like, which has become more similar over the years. Your questions confuses me a bit, but if you are actually looking for a good front-end for your standalone emulators, try emudeck: https://www.emudeck.com/

Lots of xfce distros. My favorite is Zorin Lite

He’s got 8 fingers on each hand. 🤣

Zorin is my fav.

Scan through some YouTube videos of each of these recommended distros and see which one you like the look of best; They are all good recommendations.

I’d like to throw Zorin in the pot, I use it on all my devices (and servers) since it’s just smooth and works without fuss or tinkering. There’s a Gnome version and an XFCE version, both are very nice. XFCE is a little lighter in weight of course, which you may like or need.