For me it is clear cheating, because first - in such way they will cut the number of rewards, second - they will collect your data. If they are acting in such way, they easily can continue their cheating. Or for example - sell their database. Anyway i am trying to stay away from such bad players.
Yes, it does look like a very obvious cheating, and everyone does try to stay away from bad players, but we also often get stuck into their strategies, because basically they have a very sweet strategy so that everyone can easily be attracted to them.