Keep in mind, this is not any endorsement, just letting you know what's out there.
I was approached recently about the art of speed running. I was asked about clone consoles. I'm not talking about the official ones like the SNES 2. I'm talking about third-party hardware clone consoles, like the Mega RetroN HD and Retro Duo. I was asked if that would count as EMU or the original hardware. I'm quite stumped. I was also asked about flash carts.
I'm sure this was asked before, but couldn't find any information on the topic.
When I was talking about clone console systems, I was talking about the aftermarket. I mean a clone system that can play actual games for many retro designs. The designs are in there. For example, the Retro Duo can play the actual cart of both NES and SNES.
Keep in mind, this is NOT an endowment! I'm just letting you know what is out there.
here's a link: https://bootleggames.fandom.com/wiki/Clone_consoles
In the case of reliability, clone consoles like the kind mentioned in the link, are recreations and differ greatly in performance. Sometimes for the worse, sometimes giving players an edge in the speedrun. Generally, these should be avoided. You can always make a case, and help with the research into the speed of the console.
However, there are systems like the consoles from Analogue like the Super NT, which are FPGA's. These chips are programmed to emulate a system, but in a way that it's pretty much 1:1 in performance to the real consoles. (as long as you use default options and don't abuse save states and the such). Do check with the community. Edit: I love how my description of an FPGA uses words that should usually disqualify them, but in reality they do
For flash carts: while 9/10 times this enables piracy, it also opens up other things like romhacks, access to games that are either insanely rare/expensive or practice roms. And savestates for practice. Flash carts offer no real benefit to Speedrunners while doing actual runs, and are generally allowed. As long as you don't use the features mentioned above normal consoles usually don't have.
This is my take, and general concensus, and not everyone agrees with this.