I was getting ready to rant until you mentioned Terraria. Then I read the last line of your post.
Shoot, if I’m playing against the computer I use the game the way I want. It’s not cheating if your opponent is non-sentient.
I especially feel that way in games where ridiculous stuff happens at random (e.g. Rimworld). If I’m 2h into building a new colony and somehow get wiped out by 1 rabid squirrel, I curse, laugh my ass off for a minute, then load an autosave.
I have crazy high hours on Skyrim because I replayed it in French and Spanish. It is a very fun way to get the cheapest language immersion ever (though your vocabulary becomes a little, um, specialized)