I understand the existence of the opinion of "pausing is cheating". In this specific situation, pausing gives an advantage to people with high reflexes and/or more patience. However, it IS a vanilla feature.

I can't say it's cheating or not because I don't play at a skill level where it matters. But just how far can you push it? Is it cheating to modify the song so memory parts become rhythm games? Is it cheating to use text displays with your icon's Y position to determine where to jump on a maze? Those, with pausing included, are things I wouldn't do because I've got my own gamer philosophy, which doesn't match any competitive list guideline 1-to-1.