Re: If there are no winners?
 

I'd say that attempting to get a leg up on the competition is cheating and is wrong in any case.
But in the event there are no losers/winners/it doesn't actually help you win, then it really made no difference, as it effected nobody at all.

it probably shouldn't be done, but in such a case, who honestly cares?

I play fun games with friends where we encourage cheating. it adds a level of deception and extra sneakiness to the game, which may get boring pretty quick otherwise. cheating doesn't even help you all that much, so we let it go.