Need advice: static imploding because of cheater.

[Kazhar]

There's a difference between accessibility and convenience.

The accessibility options are already in-game. (For colourblind and hearing-impaired. As well as being able to remap your buttons). What ACT would do is not accessibility, but rather convenience, as the game already does it. ACT just wraps it all up with a bow.

That's the thing, a lot of people involved in raiding don't think convenience tools such as ACT or minor UI enhancements are cheating. It doesn't give you any information you're not supposed to have, it just presents them nicely.
Could you reach high level of play without ACT? Personally I believe so, as long as you still make the efforts to improve and seek feedback. I even think ACT isn't really needed as much if you already know your stuff.
Is it easier with ACT? Definitely.
Is it cheating to use ACT? My opinion is still no, because I don't think learning to play your job by looking through the chat log or using jank systems such as Stone Sky Sea is part of the intented challenge of the game. Intended difficulty is the key word, and this is why some add-ons see more tolerance than others, especially mods which remove some unintended inconvenience.
Yes, the devs intended the fights to be clearable without third party tools. But did they want us to never look at job guides and try to ignore the existence of fflogs despite it being a huge part of the raiding community since Heavensward, being an influence in every single job guide, rotation and even their own balancing? Did they intend every fight to be cleared with high ping, disabilities and without voice chat?