Did you have fun? That's all that ever counts

Don't let anyone tell you what counts and doesn't. If you believe it did then it did.

I haven't played that game and I have no idea what you're talking about but I stand by my advice.

Why wouldn’t it count?

It’s like a side quest anyway. I do t think I ever got them all as a kid. But I still consider the game finished.

Do you really need someone else’s approval on this?

You don't get anything except a very small and effectively insignificant change to the ending if you get all the emeralds in Sonic 1 (you don't even get 7 emeralds) so I'd say it counts. Sonic 2 and 3/Knuckles actually give a meaningful reward for getting all the emeralds so it's worth it to go for them, even if going for them in Sonic 2 is a real pain in the butt (and the one real bad thing about Sonic 2).

Congratulations!

But like Dr. Robotnik said after credits as he juggles the Chaos Emeralds: “Try Again”