Is buying a painted army cheating?

Last weekend a friend of mine sold me his exquisitely painted nurgle themed chaos marine army. I haven't taken any pictures of it, though my buddy posted some pictures on Dakka after he got wrongfully screwed out of a decent painting score at the 2010 Da Grand Waaagh. 

I've always felt like buying models painted by someone else was a bit of a Faustian exercise and akin to buying currency in an MMO. 

As I've written lately, I've been in the market to add to my stable and he mentioned to me a few weeks ago he was looking to get rid of it and after thinking about it for a little while while I did obviously decided to pull the trigger I was conflicted.  The price was more then fair,and owning these heavily converted with high quality painted models should have been an easy decision though I had this nagging feeling that it was a bit like cheating.

Sometimes I catch myself thinking like an old school player and I think this is what was going on.  When I played in 2nd and 3rd no one played with models anyone else painted, you painted your own army and you were proud of it.  I know I am not the kind of person to act like I painted it but it somehow still feels like it's not on the up and up.

In the end, clearly I got over my feelings on the subject, what do you think? Is it okay to buy a painted army, or in this hobby of modeling and painting are you taking the short path?