To be quite honest with you, the two are the same in some regards.

Cheaters more easily amass large groups and are more often dominant. It is an ugly truth of the game and I don't think anyone who has seriously played for a while would deny that outside friendships turn into in game powerhouses and cabal leaderships. So, you're still better off cheating. In fact, you're always better off cheating - that's why you'll never get rid of it.

I won't say every hell trip has been composed of people who knew each other OOC, I'll just say its more often the case than the opposite. At the very least one of the major stakeholders in the trip was shown how/what to do as part of what you'd consider a team of "cheaters". Including maps/et al.

More to the point though, the less people play the more impossible these things become for non-cheaters. People who do things "the right way", ie, playing the underdog, not cheating, etc tend to continually get shafted by the way the game works. I guess it is what it is.

At the end of the day though I don't think anyone will blame you for making a change that leaves it in a spot where you feel you don't have to modify it anymore. If you're 'Ok' point is that it takes a group of 10 to get through it then so be it.