Yes and no. You can’t totally equate the two. If you make the two situations the same, then everyone who makes an emotional connection with someone else might as well consummate it. That is certainly not recommended.
Regardless of deep damage done, the two things are not interchangeable.
In my opinion, when hearts are involved, as in an emotional affair, things become dangerous. Many physical affairs are just that- physical, done for the “thrill” and release, rather that for a deep connection. In either case, this isn’t always true, and also in either case, often one person is involved in an entirely different way that the other.
I witnessed an emotional affair which was on that level because the couple believed that consummating it made it a “bad” thing, yet their connection to each other became incredibly deep through hours, days, weeks, months, of “sharing” everything about themselves. Regardless of them not consummating it, the affair was a painful thing. I stand by what I said, and certainly do not condone either one or say they are interchangeable. Both are damaging and to be avoided at all costs.