One of the primary reasons for using DosBox vs virtualization, at least for actual DOS software, is that lots of old DOS games and apps are designed to run on a specific x86 chip and clock speed.
The classic example is the earlier Wing Commander games - run them on anything faster than the period correct 286/386 CPUs that were out at the time of release, the games timing/speed gets severely messed up. DosBox has nice features to let you control the CPU speed to try and make these games work again.
Software such as Wing Commander were never tested/designed originally to run on faster CPUs that didn't exist back then and software timing can sometimes only be correct on very specific chips and clockspeeds.
Here with XP, its just cool - not a practical or performant choice.
Modern Vintage Gamer recently went over Wing Commander and talked about this in detail. The problem with DosBox is the framerate chugs with lots of enemies on screen and then speeds up as you take them out one by one. He suggests the best way to play is on a PC that it was originally designed for.
You are absolutely correct that DosBox still doesn't get Wing Commander 100% perfect - it however does at least get a playable experience with the CPU cycle controls, and a much better experience than running it in dos in say VirtualBox.
I run and maintain some old 386/486 boxes as a hobby - I honestly don't think its worth it for almost anyone, DosBox will be just fine for 99% of people.
I don't think that's fair. There is a ton of software where the experience on the PCs it was designed for is mediocre, but other hardware/software is compatible and much better.
Captain Obvious must have always played games that didn't have a frame limiter, because very often games will run better on higher spec hardware than they were originally designed for. Obviously.
The classic example is the earlier Wing Commander games - run them on anything faster than the period correct 286/386 CPUs that were out at the time of release, the games timing/speed gets severely messed up. DosBox has nice features to let you control the CPU speed to try and make these games work again.
Software such as Wing Commander were never tested/designed originally to run on faster CPUs that didn't exist back then and software timing can sometimes only be correct on very specific chips and clockspeeds.
Here with XP, its just cool - not a practical or performant choice.