Skid recovery is definitely "cheating" (and yes, I used it to win the Eiger event) but I do believe it's justified for the Loeb events - they seem to use somehow very different physics from all the other rally events in the game.
In the snow challenge (no skid recovery for me here, but I did have to change the torque split to be able to win) I was completely unable to break the 4:16 target time using the stock settings and no assists. However I could get into a stock (other than snow tyres) Audi quattro, go to practice mode and do a standing start lap of Chamonix comfortably under 4 minutes. Even allowing a couple of seconds for me being not exactly on the start line, there's no way a 28 year old road car should be so much quicker than a current WRC car.