The analogy makes a lot of sense to me. Once you have an “easy button”, it’s hard to not use it. It’s sort of like when you’re at work and see the “quick workaround” effectively become the standard process.
I remember burning out on games because the cheats made them really fun in the short term, but afterward playing normally felt like agony.
I wish there were more options for “hints” instead of just giving you the walkthrough. I keep getting stuck in Subnautica, but I don’t want to just make a beeline to where I need to be.
Cheating always made games boring for me. I remember doing a cheat in Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life to get all items, and it just evaporated any fun I had.
The best balance was a GameFAQs I printed out for Morrowind that just covered the first handful of quests of the game. Gave me tips for class and race selection, and just enough guidance to get my bearings.