Kinda. I mean, I can dust off my old console and play the games on that any time I want. App Store stuff means built in expiration date. Cloud integration means built in expiration date. Price of progress.
Your old console ran the same code for years on end with no updates and no new features. Your phone's updating all the time. Thus, software TTL is much lower. (Software TTL for your console is determined by how long your cartridge serves up good data.)