Personally, I think that the only 'cheater' quilts are the ones you buy already made from another country that uses sweat shop labor. That is just my opinion.
As for panels, whole cloth, or any other printed fabric that you have to cut and sew together with another piece of fabric, whether it be a humongous panel or a small piece of fabric, you still have to sew it together, use batting, and somehow sew that together. As far as I am concerned, you have just made yourself a bonafide quilt. Some quilts are complicated and some quilts are simplified.