Your definition of cheating is clearly different than mine.

In particular, what I consider cheating is the following:
1. Using the cheat console, mainly because it is clearly marked as being cheats. Similarly, using cheat keys. (Of course, I will still use the cheat to give my characters all 18s, but I will acknowledge that it is a cheat.)
2. Modifying the game in any way. When you do this, you are no longer playing the game as it is originally written, but are rather playing a slightly different game with slightly different rules.

Of note:
1. I consider the use of things like fixpack mods (mods which fix bugs) to be cheating.
2. I do not consider things like gem underflow to be cheating.

On the other hand, there is the occasional gray area. For example, in Might & Magic: World of Xeen, is it cheating to save the game in Clouds, then load up the save in Darkside alone? (Doing so allows you to warp to the map with the same ID number in the other game, allowing you to enter Olympus early, for example.)

Yes. When you consider patching bugs to be cheats, but actual cheats not to be cheats, there is zero hope for us to ever agree on this. What you are describing is twisted justification for actual cheating.