Nah. Cheating means the usage of something that's forbidden, and clearly it wasn't forbidden that time or otherwise half of active players would have been banned.
When the new rules were engaged I of course never used those tools anymore. Unlike Herman and two Elite Managers who got (termporarily) banned.
Bragging? Amusing? Mhm. I don't think so. It's just the old days without any valuation in the positive or negative. I just came across some old screenshots and read those thread, it simply fits the whole thing. The past isn't changed if everybody simply keeps ignoring things happened.
Any idea how much time all these antics of "you guys" have taken from the real development work, and so forth?
Yeah, I can imagine it took some hours to monitor the new rules and develop the call system. That's why I decided to stay to what I've done (unlime some others, like Herman and other Elite members, who tried to find funny excuses) and apologized in a serious way to you due to all the action (but not because it was not legal, because it was at this very moment), as well as adopted the new rules immediately.
Unfortunately your time schedule, new features (eye candy and useful) and things many people wait for (like the city based demand) are a big secret, so it's really tough to appraise things correctly.
Just to bring things in a right way:
... is now bragging about their dominance in the ultra challenging and super competitive Beginners World? 
I'm not "bragging" anywhere. If you refer to press releases, I suggest you take a look at the older press release forums. I always made lots of them, all of them in the same way and some clearly showing my mistakes. If you are curious about general skill things you are welcome to contact me via PM.
So, besides of that I'm just curious why you don't use half of your AWS time to help others (mostly new players) via PM and forums. Something that really contributes to the game.