It's a fairly different thing—emotional intelligence requires not only the ability to assess other people's emotions, but also enough self-awarneess and the ability to not be responsive to one's very own emotions, which is an entirely different set of skills from executive knowledge like...
I just hate that what baseball cap said was so often said by people who were friends with cheaters. Also Rei's excuse—so many people used that too. It's not out of place for them to say it out loud, people often do.
Cheating is wrong regardless of literally any circumstances.