It's not about a "nostalgia" feeling, it's just about usage feeling of the buttons. One gaming session using the mega-stiff red/black switches included in most of the cheap Amazon sets (like this one) and you'll figure out what we're talking about.

The physical knockoff buttons are likely fine; half my set are knockoffs. But I bought my own switches, tailored to my personal preference regarding clickyness and actuation weight. The switches I chose are ultralight switches that are very quiet- they're lower actuation weight than anything you would have ever found in a real arcade, but it fit my preference. The switches I bought I got here.

If this is your first arcade project of any kind, I would get the EG STARTS kit I linked honestly. It's almost everything you need and it's very inexpensive. I would then buy some replacement microswitches and swap them out on the buttons. You're going to likely burn a bit of money figuring out exactly what you like - I ended up with over 40 unused switches in a handful of different weights. I liked the feel of the Cherry D44X switches, but they were super loud to my ears, especially on my joysticks. That's when I landed on the Zippy ultralights, and once I had them on the joysticks I felt compelled to use them in my buttons as well.

If you find yourself playing the arcade a lot, you can replace the hardware down the line. If it only gets occasional use, then probably don't ever spend the extra cash.

The full kit i purchased is here, but it isn't cheap by any means, and it doesn't include the USB encoders or wiring. And then I ended up replacing all the switches on top of that.