I keep wanting to come back to the stealing signs in baseball analogy because it's so apt. But as I think about it, it's prevalent in every sport. Why do football teams huddle up before a play? Why does the quarterback yell random words and numbers? Why do basketball players use hand signals to set their offense? It's all to prevent the other team from "stealing" their information, from knowing what they're going to do next. Why don't they just rely on the other team's sense of sportsmanship to not listen in? Or, going back to baseball for a moment, how incredibly rude for players to be stealing bases.
In professional sports, there's no leeway. A professional player will, and should, do anything they can
within the rules to win. If that means they embarrass a pitcher who forgot to call timeout before talking to his catcher by stealing a base, no one calls them a dirty player or accuses them of cheating. It's the pitchers fault for failing to pay attention to the game. Who cares if it's usually "understood" that a pitcher wants a timeout when he talks to the catcher?
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If you allow (or encourage) the stealing of directions, where do you draw the line? Why not steal another teams clue or their passports? ? Why not injure or kill them?
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Because one is explicitly against the rules, and the others are illegal.
I'd turn that question around. Where do you draw the line for within-the-rules cheating? Is someone who is lost but finds there way when they see another team running the opposite direction a cheater? If I overhear another team blurt out an answer, am I cheating if I use that answer? If two teams are in a foot race to the finish line, but one team sees an easier path, are they cheating if they don't stop and point out that path to their competitor?
My answer is, the line is the rules and the law. If it's not expressly forbidden, it's fair game.