What we need are programs compiled down to some minimal instruction sets, simplifying the implementation of custom vm able to run such software.

The source does not mean anything if there is no working compiler, or if the compiler doesn't support your new shiny platform.

It is the same for servers. Having the source for a whole hosting service depending on some specific hardware doesn't matter.

If we decide to truly care about software legacy, we need to re-think the stack.

SCUMM VM is now like that, plenty of Point and Click games https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm