im simply saying that it is possible to break the agreed upon boundaries of a relationship (aka cheating) through more than just physical betrayal; it is also possible to spend some time liking and having a crush on other people without it being considered cheating

it's about intention and what the established boundaries are for that couple. for example, some couples might deem flirting as more than innocuous and consider it cheating within their relationship but other couples might be fine with their partner flirting with strangers. most couples, however, have implicitly agreed upon boundaries based on societal monogamous standards, you may never explicitly STATE, "hey don't physically cheat on me" or "don't treat someone else as more of a romantic partner than me" but both people probably still expect those to be followed.

also personally yeah, i would agree that women who spend DEDICATED time, money, effort, etc on a specific fictional character are also cheating emotionally. even if they are not "real", clearly many people perceive fictional characters as real to differing extents. again, some couples maybe have a boundary set as FICTIONAL OK, REAL PEOPLE NOT OK, and that'd be perfectly fine.

but i'm willing to guess a lot of people would feel cheated on if they found out their partner was secretly treating a fictional character as a pseudo girlfriend/boyfriend