I don't see how it's any different than neosd or 161 multicart. Everything I did can be reversed in like ten minutes. Lol
Like I said, putting a MAME PC or a Raspberry inside an actual arcade machine is the worst thing, if you ask
me. It's your business how you play your games. However, anyone in their right mind must admit there's a difference between emulating games via MAME and playing them on the real hardware. Original cartridges aside, at least people driving the flash device business forward must agree with this statement.
You can't say MAME isn't any different than NeoSD or Chinese multicarts and mean it. Multicarts alone, even though they run on the real hardware, have some issues with certain games. Even the NeoSD has issues of its own, but unlike multicarts, these issues can, and hopefully will be fixed.
I get it, though. Emulation is cheap. Switching to NeoSD is an investment you're not willing to make. Multicarts are cheap, but don't offer all of the games. While I can appreciate the look of that game select menu, which mimics the multi-slot cards, it's definitely not something I would go with because of the reasons mentioned above.
You're a lucky owner of an original cabinet. I feel that running emulators is a waste, especially now, when real hardware multigame solutions are easily accessible. How you feel about it is another matter and we don't need to prove anything to each other.