I will try to explain preloading to the best of my ability so that people can objectively analyze whether the program meets "developing and distributing cheats." At the bottom I will give my opinion and explanation on the preloading tool. If I am wrong at all I welcome people to correct me as I am in no way an expert on this topic. I will disclose that I have messed around with preloading before and have installed and messed around with cukei's preloader. I have never used cukei's preloader or had it enabled during any competitive league games. For anyone questioning my integrity, I stream all my scrims and matches so if I had any banned mods installed, you could see them.
Whether or not custom mods are allowed on a server is based on the sv_pure of a server, an in game command. sv_pure -1 and 0 allow all mods. sv_pure 1 allows certain whitelisted mods. sv_pure 2 forces default assets. Many custom community servers run sv_pure -1, 0, or 1 while competitive servers run sv_pure 2.
Preloading is a method of loading in certain game modifications to change things like custom weapon skins, player model replacements, particle replacements, or taunt replacements etc. Generally, preloading is done by adding a script to your cfg files. What the script does is when the game boots up, it opens an offline server then closes it which "loads" your installed mods before joining on offline server. The preloaded mods are loaded to your game files and able to replace the default assets depending on the type of server you join and that server's sv_pure level. For example, instead of having the original rocket launcher, you might replace it with the quake 2 launcher model.
Recently, people discovered methods of developing mods that, when preloaded, were able to bypass certain sv_pure server settings. These methods worked for certain types of mods and allowed people to bypass anything up to sv_pure 1 restrictions. From my understanding, until cukei's preloading tool was developed, no one had publicly released a method of being able to preload mods on sv_pure 2 servers. For the most part, people that install and use cukei's mod exclusively play casual/community servers and want to install mods to make the game more enjoyable. That being said, there are mods that change aspects of the game files which violate the cheating rules of competitive leagues. Since I play in North America, I will focus on RGL's rules regarding game modifications.
Section 1003 of the RGL Global Rules address "Game Integrity" and discuss their stance on game modifications. Game mods fall under Subsection 1003.3 - Game Exploits. Some examples of mods RGL provides as game exploits are "recolored or modified weapon tracer effects; Oversized particle effects (e.g. healing particles, weapon particles, etc.); Transparent enemy pyro flames (removing your own flames is allowed); Using mods to replace player texture colors; and Developer Textures." If someone changed the overheal particles like in the videos linked or changed the weapon particles, that violates RGLs game exploit rules.
From an anticheat perspective, because these modifications are done client side, I do not think they are possible to detect by watching a demo file. The only way to know if someone is using the files is to physically see their screen when they play the game.
I will now give my opinion on what I believe the program does and whether the ban was justified so there may be bias.
The program by itself does nothing. The program is a tool which allows the user to choose custom mod files which it then runs through itself to make them bypass sv_pure and default game textures, models, etc. While the program is a tool that makes it easier for people to install mods that violate the integrity of competitive leagues, I don't see how the program is any different than someone modifying their game files to change the spy decloak sound, adding in metal footsteps, or adding in sniper scope transparency. I do agree that the program lowers the barrier for nefarious individuals to cheat, but, I believe if someone was determined enough to cheat, they would eventually find a way. For all we know people may have already been cheating using preloading methods before this.
Do I think a ban for developing and distributing cheats is warranted - no. The preloader itself does not give the user cheats, it enables that user to install mods that violate the competitive integrity and rule sets of competitive leagues.
I'm not addressing any other bans on cukei's RGL account because that is not the point of my post.