When the Super Mario 3D All Stars on the Switch came out recently, they were thinking if that compilation is purely emulation, but in fact, IT IS.
That reaction with 3D All Stars has made me thinking if Dolphin could get a Switch port someday. Will this be ever going to happen?
It isn't pure emulation, but partial emulation. All of the GPU side is emulated, but the CPU is ported. Also it differs per game as well. So while it is mostly emulated, they ported the hardest part - CPU emulation.
Also you can already run Dolphin on the Switch with homebrew and Linux and try it out for yourself! We're not as performant as the 3D All Star emulators, since we're pure emulation and more accurate.
Yes was thinking of something like that as well...
If you have an unpatched switch, you can install Android on it and install Dolphin from there. Since Android runs natively on the Switch (the Switch has the exact same processor as the NVIDIA Shield TV), it should get decent performance.