Genuine question here, as someone just out of sprout territory (and certainly not anywhere close to high level endgame content): doesn't "cheating" imply cheating others out of something? It's my impression that very little in this game is zero-sum in the sense that one player's success demands another player's failure. Exceptions are PvP and, I suppose, world first races--although the rewards there seem to be limited to bragging rights.

So even if addons make content easier for some players--because the line between what is "just QoL" and what is "game altering" is gray and mercurial--is it really "cheating" that directly and negatively impacts the gameplay experiences of others? Does a player clearing with addons materially devalue the clear of someone playing without them?

I know this might be an overly nitpicky semantic distinction, but I find it hard to agree with arguments that rely on an assumption that "cheating" in this sense is inherently detrimental.

Maybe this is just my live-and-let-live tendencies (and the fact that I've had to remind kids in my life that it's just a game), but as long as addons are not necessary for content, and that the players who use them aren't directly and negatively impacting the gameplay of others, I don't really see the point in demonizing them...

Do folks really care that other players choose to experience the game and clear content in a different way than they did? Are there some higher stakes, beyond pretty weapons and bragging rights, to this that I'm missing?

(Also, this isn't a discussion the ToS, or the enforcement of the ToS by SE; it's more about the moral(?) outrage from some folks about this whole drama.)