The first question before all of these is...
How do I know it's design to play that way or it's cheating?

We always never know until SE fixed something then we are...
"oh so it's not how it should be."
or
"oh so it's not supposed to be this easy."

We can't just because it's easy then we stop doing it... like using lv50 char to kill low lv mobs or high lv crafter to speedy hand low lv formula... These are easy, but are they exploits?