But yes it is still "cheating" - as an example say a racing driver took all his best split times and combined them all together and goes "this is my fastest time around the circuit" it's actually a lot different to the fastest time someone will actually get around the circuit first time around.

Now of course if the circuit had actual save/reload points you could say well this is my best time up to point A and this is my best time from point A to B etc etc so my best overall time is X.

With save stating you are effectively adding extra save/reload points inbetween save points A, B and C which would give you an unfair advantage as you can finetune things within that space that other people cannot.

At the end of the day save states can be used as a tool of convenience but if it's something outside of the game design itself (i.e. saving where you otherwise could not) then you are circumventing it and thus "cheating."

The real question at hand here is - why does it matter so much to you?