I like it (and like to use max-wave.lua to limit migrant wave size as well), but yeah it's definitely lot easier to play (though not easier as game) without having to spend hours assigning labours or having game go faster than Goatmaan's 2 fps in his aiming for 1k dwarfs forts so I can understand why you'd call it kind of cheating.
Setting it to 1 results in quite a bit more attention to births and visitor petitions, which are pretty insignificant when you get two-digit migrant groups several times a year, so it can be firmly said to do a large change to game's nature.
Yo FF, how do I go about getting that migrant wave limiter? Is it a part of DFHack (which I never got for current ver)?
I routinely have a migrant pattern of Starting 7, 3 summer migrants, 3 fall migrants, winter, 34 second-spring migrants, 20 second-summer migrants... and it's more than a bit odd to see your fortress population more than double from a single migrant wave, and more than a small burden to suddenly have to accommodate such a pop increase in terms of available jobs, military posts and equipment. I would love to be able to set my migrant cap to, say, "7 or 15% of the population value, whichever is higher", so that initial waves cannot swamp my ability to provide tasks, while still scaling up to larger waves as your fortress grows to accommodate them.
Also, I get triggered when I carefully min-max my autumn and winter to give all of my dwarves valuable Moodable skill possibilities, and then a 30+ wave comes and shits all over my chances of one of the useful dorfs mooding.
Finally, 1-thousand dwarf fort? What madness, that poor processor...