You have really failed to grasp this.
Frontier make the game, I'm choosing who I see within the game - NOT changing the game to suit me, there is a difference you are failing to see (on purpose I suspect).
Cheating would be modifying the game code to give me an advantage, which I would never do, for 2 reasons
;
First and most important, cheating is wrong.
Secondly, I have no idea how to modify a game - never needed to know, not going to start now.
Choosing who I see in game, is part of the game. It was an advertised feature, that I based my purchase on.
At the moment, I use the in game tools to select who I play with an when I play with them.
But I can use any method I like, as Frontier have no say over my hardware/ internet and I'm not modifying their game or code (aka not cheating).
No one is talking about changing how the game works - no one is touching the game.
The whole chat that you have ignored is calls to unbalance the game to lock rewards to open mode - we are providing the counter reason not to push for that, because it won't work.
People can and will use change their hardware settings to bypass the open only lockouts for rewards.
Again, this is not cheating - as no one is changing the game or how it works. Choosing who we play with is part of the game, as advertised.
How are you going to run in to me?
I choose who to play with and have very high standards.
You don't make the cut.
Oh, and VPNs would be under the same constrictions on using outside networking - so under your comments, you're cheating by using them