I agree cheating is wrong. But it’s wrong because it’s fraud. You’ve falsified data and materially misrepresented yourself in a situation where there’s an expectation of honestly measuring your aptitude. Whoever relies on that truthful representation (such as a college offering you a scholarship) is being cheated out of something of value (a student with commendable aptitude that will one day give back generously to the endowment, che<tongue>ek). We tend not to worry too much about cheating because usually it doesn't work out for the cheater in the end, but it’s clearly unethical.

“Stealing from the public’s ability to trust things.” Well… I tend to believe in people to an extent that would make Jonathan Kent proud, and even I don’t think entertainment that takes liberties is bad for society or erodes trust. If almost all codes of ethics agreed that entertainment had to be real, Hollywood and the internet wouldn’t exist.

I can see it being unfair to other content creators who believe that real content is one of the rules of the game. But since I’m not in the content creation industry I don’t know if that’s the expectation.