Addressing the "spirit of the game" or "spirit of the rules" is a bit like addressing "what is art." The spirit of the thing is tied up with the intention of the producer of the thing, the receiver of the thing, and the thing itself. We sort of know what was/is intended, how the thing strikes our sensibilities, and what the thing is, but all that is secondary to the concrete thing itself. In this case the "thing itself" is encoded in the rules and enforcement of those rules. What the rules say is not permissible, how those rules are applied and the degree to which they are applied constitutes the actual "spirit" of the rules at this time. And that means, pretty much, their is not real advantage of speaking of the "spirit" of the rules or game since if it's legal (or not but not enforced, which is a form of "legal by proxy") it's all you have to go on. So the idea of "cheating" becomes mute when it "violates" the "spirit of the game" exactly because you can't violate something that, legally speaking, does not exist.
As for the building FA farms, I do it all the time. I have about 200 workshops now and I parked all my Chapter 18 buildings and even deleted my portal for the room. Why? Because I like helping my team get into the top 10 (which we do every time we go "all out"). That, to me, is part of the game and makes it fun. One supposes it's a bit like playing any spoirt. You show up with people and they haven't made the effort to bulk up, or improve their sport skills, they generally lose, where those who sacrifice time and energy to do so, often do better.
AJ
AJ