Generally speaking, yes, it would. Micropython runs on both esp8266 (a couple of dollars for a board) and micro:bit (designed for education); so cost isn't a factor. Uploading/flashing code is annoying on the esp8266 (though decent tooling would assist with that). I think for students real hardware is much more useful - this is probably going to be more useful for people actually trying to build something (not that students should be excluded from that, but the target is different)

> Wouldn't it be better to have students learn on hardware itself?

You can probably iterate more rapidly on the emulator; it's not like this and real hardware are mutually exclusive, just as using, say, an Android emulator in development and also real devices aren't mutually exclusive, but things people do together.

“Wouldn't X be better?” is only meaningful if the options are mutually exclusive.