@OP
When Sammy released Exynos based devices instead of SD, everyone went against that decision and now they try to make up for their mistake. Now like other people, who sourced SD based devices when only Exynos one was available here, you have to source Exynos based one.
And no, Sammy is not cheating. If you ask me, I'd say, they just come to their senses and start listening to customers. Benchmarks will not justify everything and if you solely buy phones based on benchmarks, you will not always end up happy. My Nexus 5 didn't do wonders in Benchmarks, but here I am, a happy Nexus user. It fulfills my daily usage, play whatever I throw at, be it demanding games, HD video. So benchmarks have no value in real life scenario in my view.