I feel the opposite about that. To me it very much felt like cheating, atleast with the way the mapping apps were setup. In the real game even if you're using a guide, certain Pokemon appear in certain areas, but for most of them theres no real way to find all of the Pokemon in an area without wondering around until you find them, a feature I felt was necessary to recreate the actual game.

The feet feature being removed hurt the game, but those maps that posted the exact location of the Pokemon seemed to go counter to the actual game.