It's still cheating. He intentionally made a decision to not make weight and has said it was to gain an advantage. The consequences of that were not getting to fight for the belt and being fined.
Just because he was punished and they fought doesn't change that what he did is the literal definition of cheating.
There is no difference between that and his use of PEDs. He still got to fight with PEDs in his system(if the tests are correct). He will then be punished for that action. The fight still went ahead regardless. In both situations he will be punished in some way for cheating.
You are having to go back and forth with people because you are wrong. It doesn't matter if he intentionally missed weight, uses PEDs, throws head butts intentionally or wears dodgy weighted wraps, all of these are forms of cheating.
PEDs aren't the line where it becomes officially cheating. he didn't miss weight because of a bad weight cut either. he intentionally made a decision to not even bother to cut the weight and cared so little he was drinking beers on the ceremonial scale.
Were they aware he had PED's before the fight? Or did that knowledge come to us after the fact? While the weight was known to everyone before the fight and it still happened, so quite the comparison there...
Anyway, teachers go back and forth with students all the time and it isn't because students are correct, it's because they are stuborn and don't want to learn, so that example is also incorrect.
The fact of the matter is, I am not talking about him cheating in his championship fight. Even if it isn't a legal matter, one way to know if what you are saying is correct or not, simply say "would it hold up in court?"
"Your honor, he cheated, he intentionaly missed weight, he admited it."
"Correct, this is why that fight was scrapped and he didn't get fight for the belt and was charged 1.5 million dollars."
"No but then he beat me while being OW, it's cheating!"
"No because you accepted the new terms, that was a different fight and the weight wasn't an issue anymore.
That's all there's to it, no matter how much you want to look into it, Ryan cheated with PED's and he paid the price for intentionaly missing weight by not being allowed to fight for the belt.
But in the actual fight where he humbled Haney, he didn't cheat as far as weight is concerned, everybody knew his weight and they still accepted.
Needless to say, if Haney had won the fight, Ryan would still be facing punishment and cheating accusations from Haney due to the PED's, but he wouldn't be saying much about the weight anymore, because he won.
Since he lost, all of a sudden those 3lbs he was all too happy to accept 1.5 million for, are such an incredible advantage that it cost him the fight... please...